Wanda Lloyd: Celebrate Black culture this Juneteenth, beware the commercialization

This is a column by Wanda Lloyd, a retired newspaper editor and author of “COMING FULL CIRCLE: From Jim Crow to Journalism.”

When President Biden signed the bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, two days before June 19, the official date recognizing notification of the end of slavery in Texas, few communities had time to prepare huge celebrations.

That’s not the case a year later, where in the Savannah area alone, more than a half-dozen big celebrations are planned. And across the nation this month, Juneteenth celebrations are underway in places like Houston, Philadelphia, Denver Montgomery, Atlanta, Baltimore and, of course, in Galveston, Texas.

Galveston is the city where, in 1865, Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3, announcing the freedom of more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state of Texas one of the last enslaved groups to be freed in the United States. This announcement came two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

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My hope is that this new federal holiday will be celebrated for the reason it was established - to remind present and future generations not only about the delayed emancipation in Texas but also about the enslaved Americans on whose backs this country was built. This holiday is intended to celebrate African American culture, but there is widespread fear that many people will consider Juneteenth as just another day off from work, with little thought as to why the federal holiday was established.

In 1983 when President Reagan signed into law the holiday to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. - after 15 years of valiant efforts by civil rights groups to get the holiday recognized on the federal level - MLK Day was designated as a national day of service to encourage Americans to volunteer and improve their communities.

And in many places, that’s still the case. But each year we observe more and more ads for MLK Day sales on cars, clothing, groceries or some such. The MLK day of service is now also a holiday of sales.

More recently, some retailers have been quick to jump on the Juneteenth bandwagon. In May 2021, just days before the Juneteenth holiday bill was signed, many Black influencers called out retailer Old Navy for trying to capitalize on the Juneteenth by offering T-shirts that were “meant to amplify the Black experience.” Old Navy had asked about 300 Black influencers to purchase one of their T-shirts as an endorsement for their sales. After the backlash, Old Navy suspended the influencer campaign.

More recently, in May Walmart apologized for selling Juneteenth-themed ice cream after widespread outrage on social media over the company’s “Celebration Edition: Juneteenth Ice Cream.”

The container had images of melanated hands high-fiving to music notes. As noted by a Buzzfeed contributor, “Juneteenth is a monumental moment in Black history, not an ice cream flavor!” Walmart continues to sell other Juneteenth items such as T-shirts, yard flags and decorations.

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On the other hand, local bookstores and online stores (including the big one we all know and use) sell books about Juneteenth that can be read with children to inform them of the meaning of the holiday.

Celebrations in our area include cookouts, parades, festivals, readings and music in Savannah, Pooler, Bluffton, Tybee Island and Richmond Hill, giving us a way to celebrate while learning more about the culture and heritage of descendants of enslaved people.

Let’s not be tempted to turn this holiday into a time of commerce, but a season of learning and celebration.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah community should focus on celebrating culture this Juneteenth