A day after announcing all state offices would close Friday in recognition of Juneteenth, Gov. John Carney discusses the day, and continuing the discussion about racial equity.
"If we don't educate ourselves and acknowledge the ugly history around race we can't begin to understand the anger and frustration that we've seen," said Carney during an online forum Friday.
Carney says tough conversations still need to be had about racial justice and equality, and the least that can be done is to commit to learning history lessons, both good and bad.
Dr. Donna Patterson is the Chair of Delaware State University’s Dept. of History, Political Science, and Philosophy. She says moving forward mixing education with the Juneteenth celebration is important.
"Educating people to the tenets of Juneteenth, to some of the injustices in this country and really trying to get them to adhere to that. In future celebrations, really incorporate this into some of the ceremonies and some of the celebrations," said Patterson. "But also I'm expecting that we're going to see more on Juneteenth in terms of documentaries, books and this sort of thing."
One thing Patterson is concerned about what impact there will be on Juneteenth, if more states make it a holiday, or it becomes a national holiday.
"I would love to see a lot of states really make it a state holiday officially, and perhaps finally a national, federal holiday, but what does that look like? Would that change the essence of Juneteenth the way that we see it now? Once it becomes a major holiday, and the consumerism that could potentially come with that. Will it shift and morph into something else?" said Patterson.
Juneteenth has been recognized in Delaware state code for two decades. But the the move to close state government offices Friday to observe the day is new. Wilmington and Dover city governments also chose to close, along with Kent and New Castle County offices..
