Black People Freed Black People, Get It Right History | The Amber Ruffin Show

[Music] great news everybody this sunday is juneteenth it's one of my favorite holidays and i can't wait to celebrate yay looking cute thank you now before we party down let's take a minute to understand what juneteenth actually commemorates and who it's for in a segment called how did we get here tonight we're going to talk about juneteenth juneteenth is a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in america black people celebrate by having cookouts setting off fireworks and of course of course rubbing the juneteenth lamp so that your wishes can be granted by the juneteenth genie or june genie okay so i made up that last one but you might believe me because many white people don't actually know much about juneteenths now it's not your fault you were probably taught crt you know caucasian race tomfoolery but tonight we are going to talk about four popular misconceptions about juneteenth first that it celebrates the emancipation of the enslaved second that white people freed enslaved people third that it's a brand new holiday and fourth that it's just for black people now we're gonna start with that first misconception and for that we'll need to go all the way back to the 16th president and number one theater fan abraham lincoln lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation on january 1 1863 but it didn't do much to free the enslaved and that's because it only freed the slaves in areas in rebellion against the united states in other words lincoln only freed the slaves in areas he didn't control it's a little bit like telling the neighbors kids they can stay up all night watching scary movies and eating candy it's a nice offer but you ain't in charge there now another date you might hear is january 31st 1865. now that's when congress passed the 13th amendment ending slavery but here's the thing when that happened many slave owners didn't tell their enslaved people that they were free they kept them working until june 19 1865 when union soldiers showed up in galveston texas and informed them that they were free they called that day june 10th yeah i mean i love it now they call it juneteenth but they should call it labor day because it's the day a whole bunch of white people found out that they were going to have to work for themselves now when the slaves found out that they were freed there was a huge celebration now if you think freak nick was fun you should have seen the after party for slavery now next is our second misconception that white people freed enslaved people now saying white people freed the slaves is a little bit like saying that jolene saved dolly parton's marriage i'm pretty sure it doesn't count if you're the one who ruined it in the first place now not every enslaved person waited to be freed for example one out of every seven confederate slaves escaped to the union army harriet tubman alone freed 70 enslaved people and then she joined the union army where she led a raid that freed over 700 more now these mother will have you believing that slavery ended because the kfc colonel had a change of heart but the history they won't tell you is that black people freed black people so so let's move on to our third misconception that juneteenth is a new holiday nope the formerly enslaved celebrated that day back in 1865 and black people have been celebrating every year since we have park parties and sing lift every voice and sing and put out our wooden shoes for the juneteenth elf to fill with peach cobbler okay i made up that last one too i'm just making sure you're paying attention but the celebrations have been huge in 1936 150 000 to 200 000 people celebrated juneteenth in dallas alone for over a hundred years black people have gathered in our finest stacy adams to celebrate stacy adams is a brand of shoes that black people wear when they get dressed up it's like red bottoms for people who have the holy ghost now in fairness you may have thought juneteenth was new because it just became a federal holiday last year which is pretty embarrassing but honestly what better way to celebrate a holiday about white people taking too long to do something than for white people to take too long to acknowledge it i'm sorry man y'all love freedom so bad but you don't want to celebrate the day everybody got it okay now that leads us to our final misconception that juneteenth is just for black people not true after slavery ended the states ratified the 14th amendment which was designed to prevent discrimination against formerly enslaved people but the sneaky thing is that amendment has been used in court to help all kinds of other groups it's like when beyonce puts out a new album sure it's good for her but it also helps all of humanity the 14th amendment has been used to create laws that ban sex discrimination and it was the reason that the supreme court legalized same-sex marriage in other words because black people fought for their rights millions of other americans have better lives so no june teeth isn't just for black people but white people we're gonna need you to be careful okay because once you get a hold of things we all know what you do last month walmart decided to sell juneteenth ice cream that's right we've had our holiday for one year and walmart's already trying to make a profit don't you profit enough of a black people well mark dang you want to promote something promote my brother so yes white people feel free to celebrate juneteenth but consider it your chance to try something new enjoying a thing without making it about you it'll be hard but it'll be worth it meanwhile us black people are gonna dance we're gonna sing and of course we're gonna drink the traditional drink of juneteenth the juntini this tradition is real well at least it's real now this has been how did we get here [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Amber Ruffin Show

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Id: 6lg4xJlZP8w

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 18 2022