By Allan Stevo
June 20, 2026
I am not the richest guy. All around the world, if I want to focus on such a detail, I have superiors. I am not the most successful guy. Again, all around the world, if I want to focus on such a detail, I have superiors. Nonetheless, I just know if I dwell on the many grievances of life, I will hold myself back. I do not need to be the global paragon of wealth and success in order to know that.
Somewhere along the way, the day of celebrating freedom - Juneteenth - turned into a black nationalist holiday. And not just black nationalist, but a certain flavor of black nationalism, with a disempowerment to it.
Somewhere along the way, the day which could be a celebration of American society over slavery, and a triumph of Western culture over slavery, a triumph of Christianity, even, over slavery - somehow all gave way to divisiveness.
See For Yourself
A few minutes spent at the local Juneteenth events is easy enough to see it as a day of seething anger.
It fits perfectly in between those two other holidays of seething anger - Flag Day and Father's Day, forming a June triumvirate of seething anger before the month gives way to July and Independence Day - another day of seething anger.
That isn't true at all. Seething anger is just not the American way. One of those holidays does not belong in the American panoply of holidays.
Practices That Are Not Cathartic, But Which Cause More Suffering
Rage is not cathartic. It fuels more rage. Grievance is not cathartic. It fuels more grievance.
As someone who knows many countries well and who recognizes the treasure that America is, I do not want the balkanization of this land. I want unity in this land. United we stand, divided we fall remains a worthy aspiration. Some level of unity and homogeneity of culture is needed.
The addition of a grievance holiday to the calendar does not do that, but the opposite. It uses decent people and manipulates them for the benefit of those who wish to see the destruction of the best country on the planet.
Useful Innocents
No matter how well-intentioned a person is, at some point he becomes a useful innocent (as Mises called it) or useful idiot (as Lenin called it). Eventually that useful innocent becomes not a useful innocent, but a negligent nuisance, and eventually a social pariah.
At some point, those who repeatedly play ally to the professional grievance grifters become pariahs. At some point, the broken record of grievances becomes toxic - toxic to a people, toxic to a land, toxic to a nation.
An Opportunity
As Juneteenth was made law, I had no opportunity to approve or oppose the implementation of a grievance holiday in that situation, so I sat back and looked forward to being proven wrong and understanding what others might be seeing that I was missing. Juneteenth felt like it could offer a neat opportunity. It was about freedom after all, wasn't it?
I Have No Guilt
I come from European slave stock. I have no evidence of ever having had a slave owner in the family. I feel as unoffended when the Juneteenth speakers (or any other speakers) spew hate against white slave owners. I had nothing to do with it. If it is our genes that cause us guilt, I am probably less guilty than the black man on stage spewing hate because he has the slave master's blood in his veins.
More importantly for me, though others may disagree, I know Jesus washed me clean. I have no guilt.
Yet, somehow I am the problem, I who want to put the squabbles of old behind me - and do I ever come from a culture that has reason for squabbles. I desire to put the squabbles behind me, because I know the horror those balkanizing squabbles cause.
The grievance holiday feels like just another group of whiners not willing to pull their weight in America and part of pulling one's weight in America is to get wise to the program and then get with the program.
Whining does not get you there.
It sets you up to be a loser - at least more of a loser than you would have been without the whining.
Rage does not get you there.
It sets you up to be a loser - at least more of a loser than you would have been without the rage.
Juneteenth Is Awful In Its Present Form
I gave Juneteenth a chance these past few years. No matter what it says on paper, in practice, Juneteenth is just another grievance holiday.
Grievance holidays leave room for division and disempowerment - which is exactly the opposite of what we should want as a people: both as Christians and as Americans.
Some cultural homogeneity makes sense. Instead of that, we seem to be heading toward a day not in which press one for English, two for Spanish is the norm, but also three for Chinese, four for Arabic, five for Portuguese, six for Tagalog, seven for Hindi, eight for Urdu, and nine for Pashtun.
It almost seems like our betters wish to see this become a weak, divided, easily conquerable land. In doing so, they steal an example of true greatness from the treasuries of the world - for around the world, America is considered a treasure.
Anecdotal Experiences From My Latest Juneteenth Outing
The Juneteenth events I have witnessed since the June 17, 2021, implementation of the federal holiday, have come to prove an allied effort in division, disempowerment, and what ultimately may be the overthrow of America.
As such, I must see that holiday and other grievance-focussed holidays as anathema to the interest of this sacred and special land and people that we call the American experiment.
Down with Juneteenth.
In case I was not already under the impression that it could be a black nationalist event, rather than a day for all to celebrate freedom, the recent 11 a.m. Juneteenth event I attended started at 11:16 a.m., with the singing of a song identified as "The Black National Anthem," a song I've heard many times in church: Lift Every Voice And Sing. The portions that mention God were left out on this day. A man rose and instructed us all to stand. No one kneeled. The program stated about the song:
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" is considered the Black national anthem because its powerful lyrics uniquely capture both the deep historical suffering and the enduring hope of African Americans. Written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson in 1900, it became a vital rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement.
This was followed by what was called "The Pouring Of Libations." The program stated:
Pouring libations is a sacred ceremonial tradition in African and African diasporic cultures, serving to bridge the living and the spiritual world. It honors the ancestors who laid the foundation for our existence.
In no way am I opposed to sentiments of black nationalism or to any nationalism. I am not opposed to ethnic pride or ethnic celebrations. I am just not sure it fits America's best interest at this time to have a federal holiday connected to the promotion of one sub-group over another.
Grievance themed pins were handed out at the several tables, and extreme socialist views. In fact, this grievance filled environment skewed heavily socialist, which is understandable, since filling the atmosphere with so many grievances that American society cannot otherwise function has long been a grand marxist tactic.
The Keynote Speaker
A woman was introduced as a PhD in some multi-disciplinary grievance study field. She was the keynote speaker and was able to now set the tone for the rest of the event. Yes, this woman who has presumably done the hard, multi-faceted, and emotionally impartial reading in her field to get a PhD now had the chance to set the tone.
She instead maintained the same tone.
She rose with an angry voice, not a victorious voice. The next seven minutes were spent with her listing off grievances. All were standard, there is someone else to blame style grievances. And then I heard a new one, one that I've never heard any thinking person list as a grievance with American society, "Property in black neighborhoods appraise for less than identical properties in other neighborhoods."
My mind began to flip through a series of experiences in my own life, experiences on Chicago's south side that made it impossible for me to conclude that racism was the key reason for that discrepancy.
I learned something else important from the keynote speaker that morning, "Juneteenth is not just any one thing, not just freedom, not just justice... Juneteenth is every time, every benefit, and every purpose."
I learned Juneteenth was the perfect catch-all grievance holiday.
Lunchtime Background Music
As lunch was served, virtually pornographic rap music and hip hop was played. I felt quite bad for the little girl to my right who had been brought there by here grandmother. Either this was terribly shocking music, or pretty standard and acceptable for her to encounter. Both are reasons to feel bad. It was as if someone had been told to come up with a playlist of the most pornographic Billboard 100 rap and hip hop music of the 80s, 90s and 00s. That was the lunchtime music. It was cool that it was retro but...
The rap music appealed to a moral weakness. It celebrated a moral weakness. It was not the kind of nationalist celebration that strengthens a people.
I Am Not Trying To Poke Fun, There Are Real Questions Here
I am not trying to make fun of anyone when I write any of this about this Juneteenth celebration.
I am not trying to make fun of the three white guys on stage playing reggae, or the raging black keynote speaker, or the angry slam poet.
Though, some would say I should; that's just not where I am coming from.
I am definitely not trying to make fun of the student dancers who danced their heart out and the people in the community who choreographed the dancers. These are performances that careers and lives are built upon.
These are moments of preparation for better, as well as moments in themselves. These are all opportunities for growth, ideally growth in a good direction.
I am not trying to make fun of any of this.
But I have to ask what we are doing as a country when we make a grievance celebration one of the few federal holidays.
Christian Love Calls On You To Want This
I wish to see black Americans live prosperous and upright lives. I wish to see all Americans and all humans live prosperous and upright lives. I do not know that the version of black nationalism I saw on display brings anyone closer to that. I do not know that the version of black nationalism that I have ever seen around Juneteenth brings anyone closer to that. It may be a message of cultural celebration, but it is not a message of cultural empowerment.
This is ultimately my great grievance with the various grievance studies and grievance events. They weaken people. It elevates the pride and de-accentuates individual accountability. That is a recipe that guarantees a rotten outcome.
These grievance holidays and disempowerment events are simply not anything I can support. I do not hate anyone enough to like that. I do not want that rotten outcome for anyone.
It is hard to imagine how unsophisticated a person needs to be to see anyone who suggests this behavior as an ally. Yet that is where we are.
Grievance holidays and disempowerment events are not innocent fun. Anyone coming from a place of love and human compassion, needs to oppose them for the weakening of character they offer in the name of the elevation of pride. We dedicate days and months to this behavior and are no better off for it. Instead, we are left at a loss because of these endeavors. Neutrality in the face of such harmfulness is not just and is not right.