+ 'lone gunman' label obscures larger social forces
| | | | Top headlines Lead story Today is Juneteenth, the nation's newest federal holiday. It marks the day in 1865 in Galveston, Texas, when Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued an order that declared, "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." Granger's order freed approximately 250,000 enslaved people in Texas. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all enslaved people in the states that had seceded from the U.S., was of course issued nearly 2 ½ years before. But Texas had ignored it; hence the need to send troops to enforce the proclamation. While this history is now known by more people than before the federal holiday was established in 2021, scholar Timothy Welbeck, who is director of the Center for Anti-Racism at Temple University, writes that "Americans have wrestled with what to make of the holiday." "What is the proper way to celebrate it?" he asks. "Should holiday observers attend barbecues and cookouts? Should Juneteenth's observance be a day of learning? Is there a way to acknowledge the holiday without misappropriating it?" Those questions are especially acute now, Welbeck writes, as hard-won civil rights gains are being rolled back by the Trump administration. [ Please support The Conversation's work to fight misinformation and help experts share their knowledge with the public. ] |  | Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy | |  Martha Yates Jones and Pinkie Yates sit in a decorated buggy for Juneteenth 1908 in front of Houston's Antioch Baptist Church. African American Library at The Gregory School, Houston Public Library Timothy Welbeck, Temple University As one critic asked, has Juneteenth devolved 'into an exploitative and profit-driven enterprise for companies that disregard the true significance of this day to the Black community?' | Ethics + Religion | -
Art Jipson, University of Dayton A scholar of extremism writes that the use of the term often obscures deeper societal issues such as rising political violence and is dangerously simplistic. | | Environment + Energy | -
Gerald Frankel, The Ohio State University The decades-long struggle to find a permanent place to dispose of nuclear waste will continue, probably for many years to come. | | Politics + Society | -
Grigoris Argeros, Eastern Michigan University The outer ring of suburbs is attracting more new residents − and they are richer and better educated. | | Economy + Business | -
Amy Lastuka, University of Washington Dementia care costs are 5 times higher than the official figures suggest when you count the value of unpaid care. | | Education | -
Meredith Oyen, University of Maryland, Baltimore County The Trump administration's threat to revoke visas of some Chinese students isn't the first time the US has erected barriers to its higher education system. | | International | -
Alex Ezeh, Drexel University; Russell Viner, UCL; Sarah Baird, George Washington University Without concerted actions, we risk failing our young people in the second critical period in their development after childhood. -
Charles Cantalupo, Penn State No African writer has as many major, lasting creative achievements in such a wide range of genres as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. | | Podcast 🎙️ | -
Gemma Ware, The Conversation Listen to self-censorship expert Daniel Bar-Tal explains what motivates some people to keep quiet on The Conversation Weekly podcast. | | | | | | Video |
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