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Because Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, more people are celebrating than ever before. The only problem is not everyone knows the best way to celebrate.
Walmart is under fire for selling Juneteenth products that some people say are tone deaf and insensitive. The products have been lambasted by many online after pictures of Juneteenth ice cream and party supply surface.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is apologizing after backlash to a Juneteenth inspired food item in its cafeteria. Museum offered the Juneteenth Watermelon Salad. The museum released a statement saying, in part, as a museum, we apologize and acknowledge the negative impact that stereotypes have on communities of color.
Oh this shit pisses me off so much. How are you gonna make a Juneteenth ice cream? I hope they took it all off the shelves and they gut rid of it. In fact, I don't trust them. Hope they send it here to the Daily Show and I'll I'll deal with it personally. Oh, every single one of those ice and any other ideas they have ice cream, they better send them here. It's got a randomness. What are you doing, What are you doing? You know, apart from
the watermelon black people's stereotypes. It's amazing to me how America does this, Like they turn every meaningful holiday into an excuse to spend money. Like that's part of the problem here. You don't need to sell things for Juneteenth. Juneteenth wasn't even a mainstream thing last year, think about it. But now already they've turned it into a day of merch And look, I mean, I'm not hating you know,
we do it too here on the show. Yeah, I mean, this whole segment is brought to you by Taco Bell's brand new Flaming June teen Cordita's Taco Bell Emancipate your taste bods. All right, that's it for the headlines. But before we go, let's check in on traffic with our very own roy Wood Junior.
Everybody else?
What out board?
What's up?
What the see on?
See thet the feel there?
Let's jump in, sugar, what's happening in the traffic.
Coming to these road?
Real quick?
Though, Before I do the traffic, here's thing about that watermelon salad. Yes, first of all, this is part of the problem with them trying to get see our t out of schools. Now they just slapping it on all the food and trying to sneak black history on you in the middle of the damn day while you're trying to eat some salad. And that's that's that's just too much, man.
So you you don't w a juneteen salad.
No, what I what I feel doog, is that we tried with Juneteenth.
We tried.
We tried to celebrate it collectively as a group. It didn't work. You got to give back to black people. This is just ours and we'll just take it and we'll just celebrate it by ourself with nobody else involved. It's just certain stuff that's just gotta stay black. We just got to keep it black.
We tried.
We just get certain stuff. It's just for us. It just don't make a share. We gotta keep Junie teenth, gotta keep Kwans, we gotta keep essence. Festival will take Bobby Brown and it's just certain stuff. It's ours. It's just ours.
So the holiday would only be for Black Americans, then no.
It's not. It's like it's our holiday. It's separate, but it's equal. See, you're trying to throw me off. This is all I'm saying that.
I didn't say anything.
All I'm saying is that you don't have to put history in everything. The salad looked good. That's the thing that was so sad about it. Had the little feather cheese, that had the vinegar rette. And now you didn't have to put.
June teenth on it.
All you had me at watermelon.
That's all I have to do.
But it's cool.
It's cool.
I'm gonna do the traffic.
You want to do the traffic?
Man, Do we even have time for traffic?
No reason.
I mean, it's traffic. Man. If we don't, don't, it's messed up.
If you.
Know where that is, then you know not to go there. Don't go there. Back to you.
You may remember that President Trump had to move his big rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because it was originally scheduled on the same day as June teenth. Now that was particularly awkward because Tulsa is the site of an infamous nineteen twenty one massacre of black people. But in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump says that he had no idea June teenth was even a thing, and that he pulled many people around him and none of them had heard of June teenth either. Now I
don't know why that's surprising. Of course, nobody around Trump had heard of June teenth. Look at the people he has around him. Look at them. Mike Pence doesn't even know what a Cayenne pepper is. You think he's gonna know about black history. But to be fair, Trump is hardly alone. There are many Americans who don't know what Juneteenth is. And if you're one of those people, Dull say sloanness, he had to explain it in her new segment, Dull sayan.
Tomorrow is June tenth, the day we celebrate slavery officially ending in America.
Or if you're gone with the.
Wind fan a day of morning now, you might be thinking the end of slavery.
So this is about the Emancipation Proclamation.
Nope, the Emancipation Proclamation of eighteen sixty three didn't end slavery. Slavery didn't even end when the Civil War was over in eighteen sixty five. In reality, it took two months after the Civil War ended for the Union Army to get into all the slave states and free the slaves.
When it came to giving out freedom white people ran on CP time, but on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five, a Union general named Gordon Granger occupied Texas, the last slave state, and declared all the slaves free.
I can a hero, and it looks like the brest of my coffee shop.
I'm gonna have to thank him next time I order machiato. And freeing the slaves in Texas was especially important because although Texas was the last state to be emancipated, it had a ton of slaves.
It was blacker than a family reunion in w Conda.
That's because during the war, a lot of slave owners shift their slaves to Texas for state keeping, knowing even Union troops couldn't.
Reach that far.
They were basically treating Texas like the couch cushions to hide to weed in when the cops come. Officer, I didn't know I got this couch on Greg's list. It came with the we need. Of course, even though we celebrate Juneteenth as the end of slavery, it took many more months and a military occupation to actually enforce it.
Because it's one thing to tell people they can't have slaves. It's another thing to.
Go door to door like hey, you paying these guys, because if not, this better be a big ass sleepover. And all this still didn't free slaves in Union territories. That didn't happen until the third thirteenth Amendment. Yeah, that's right there, re Union states with slaves. Imagine living in New Jersey and being a slave. That's one human rights violation on top of another. Either way, Black people in Texas recognize June nineteenth as the day they were liberated.
They organized the first celebration of June teeth. Then over time it's spread as black people migrated, and today is celebrated by black folks around the country. June teen celebrations have evolved and become a real way to.
Pay homage to those who came before us.
It is a representation of our freedom where we.
Can all come together on one street, closed down the city to represent the culture.
You see.
That's why juneteenth is my favorite Independence Day. It goes June teenth Independence stay will Smith, then the fourth of July.
I'm not a fan of fireworks.
Sounds like someone's doing a drive by on a sky.
So if you ask me, we should make June teenth a national holiday because everybody, everybody should celebrate the end of slavery, the beginning of freedom for black people, and the long march toward America's founding ideals. Also, we get the day off. I don't want to be starting an office in June. Heaven keeps heating up fishing a mircrowave because he's a pascatarian, and then he keeps poking.
Out his day.
Today is a really special day in African American history, and to learn more about it, we turned to Roywood Junior in another episode of CPE Time.
Welcome to Cepee Time, the only show that's for the culture. The month of June is a special time in America. It's the start of summer. It's the time allergies rick havoc on our sinuses. And it's the month my hyperactive child is out of school and back in the house all day. The whole point of having kids is for them to be somewhere else, But Niama's gonna be around
as much I wouldn't have had them. June is also a special month for black people because it marks the holiday June teenth, celebrating when slavery ended on June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five. Not many people think slavery was ended in eighteen sixty three by everyone's favorite exhausted magician, Abraham Lincoln, but many slaves weren't actually freed until two and a half years later, proving that even black people's freedom runs
on CP time. So in celebration of June tenth, I'd like to talk about some of the slaves who celebrated their freedom early by escaping from slavery on their own. Slaves like Henry box Brown, a Virginian slave who's snuck inside of a wooden cratee and shipped himself to Philadelphia, where he could live as a freeman. The trip took twenty seven grueling hours. It could have been the same day,
but box Brown couldn't afford Amazon Prime. Luckily, Henry Brown arrived safely in Philadelphia and turned his story into a stage act. Every night, Henry would climb into that same wooden crpe to reenact the arduous journey that carried him to freedom, which was brave of him. I don't know if I could relive a traumatic experience like that over and over again, and I've had bad experiences with packages. Back in the day, I used to work for a moving company. One time I moved all of a customer's
possessions to the wrong apartment. My customer thought I was a thief, and the people in the apartment thought I was a reverse burglar. Every one was equally upset. Another slave who took his freedom into his own hands was Lewis Williams. He actually escaped slavery not once but twice. After his first escape, he was caught and brought to trial, but he got a look alike to switch places with him in the courtroom, and by the time the courts
realized what had happened, Lewis had escaped again. Although that look alike was probably just a random black guy for being real about it, because Lewis knew that those white folks couldn't tell black people apart. Just the other day, I was mistaken for Forrest Whittaker, which would normally be flattering, but unfortunately mister Whittaker owed this gentleman a substantial amount of money. He whooped my ass for us.
He owe me.
But maybe the most heartwarman escape is that of William and Ellen Kraft, two slaves who got married and decided to run away. Because Ellen had light skin, they hatched a plan where she dressed in men's clothes and wrapped her head and bandages and posed as an injured white man. William then posed as her servant, and the two bordered a train north. Now, being on a train full of white men must have been scary, but I can only assume that Ellen practice her white man small talk. Well, yes,
fellow white person, I too am afraid of the sun. Yes, some blocks, some block, some blocks, h Blocky's weel you've eat some blocks?
Home book.
So the next time June nineteenth comes, remember these stories of heroic slaves, which I plan to do with the Juneteenth celebration in Bloomington, Indiana this evening. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get there fast, and airfare is ridiculous. But thankfully Box Brown is an innovator. I'm royal with Junior. This has been CPE time, and remember well for the culture. Somebody come push me to the post office. Just need to get me a couple of snaps and some auto trick dip for me, some pretzels.
I'll be on my.
Wingilliams, welcome to the daily Social Distancing show.
Thank you, and happy social distancing to you.
Thank you very much, my friend. This has been quite the year for many human beings, arguably the worst year for many and for some, a year that many people have written off. Pharrell Williams isn't one of those people you've said, I know it's twenty twenty. I'm going to stay at home as much as i can, but I'm going to still do things and do things.
You have.
You have a new skin line, you have a new podcast and a podcast network. You've also got new music that you're working on. And I think and then we've got some initiatives that are probably going to change the face of how corporate America works. So let's start with the most important one, Rihanna's new album. I know everyone's waiting for the vaccine, but the other half of the country's waiting for Rihanna's new album. What can you.
Tell us about it?
There's nothing I could say, Dammit, Forrell, I knew you were going to say that to me. His interview is over, nah.
Man, because this is funny because once they once like I get asked this question, then I feel like the other interviews that follow, they'll ask for more details.
Of I feel you.
I'm just so not at liberty to say, but man, I can tell you that she's making some amazing music and we're incredibly honored to be a part of that conversation.
Something I've always admired about you as a person is that, like when you speak, you speak to be heard, and most of the time I find you listening. Tell me what Parola is doing in the podcast space, why did you choose to jump into it, and what is the new network going to be about?
So we started out with Apple some years back and just took a little break from it, and when we came back, it was like, man, there have so many other ideas that I can't do or be on, and I'm not, you know, quite frankly not the right person.
For these things.
I just wanted to like enlist really big personalities that could tell big and great stories for the network. And then the reason why we're back at it with other tone for the show is, Man, I've always seen my podcast experiences as crash courses into these other people's lives.
So I don't want to.
Have somebody on it I can't learn something from Howard Stern's a genius, That's why he does what he does right.
It's like the best right.
But for me, I use them as an opportunity in a platform for me to just for me to go to college, you know, in that person's universe.
Truly, one of the most impressive, impressive initiatives that I've seen Farrell Williams working on, and I know you worked on this for a while, was your program to reward and inspire black excellence. Talk me through what this initiative is and how you're hoping to inspire black and brown kids and young adults to become the leaders and the visionaries of tomorrow.
In a nutshell, we don't have enough of a voice in our country because we don't own enough, you know, and our our dollar, our currency, the African American and African diaspea dollars, stays in this community for six hours. Why because we don't own enough businesses to keep our money and currency circulating.
Right.
So it's our theory that if we can find a way to galvanize as many black entrepreneurs as possible, then all of a sudden, the community, you know, has proportionate access to education, proportionate access to healthcare, and proportion access to representation and legislation. And so we felt like the best way to get that going was to launch these prizes with historic black colleges and universities.
HBCUs.
You know, we are less than thirteen percent, you know, in this country, and we're north of thirty million, but our influence, you would think we were.
Half this country. You know what I'm saying. Right Well, when we.
Start to have more ownership, we have more of a voice, and then we have more of the American pie the pie chart, and that's literally what we want to do with black ambition. I'm like super excited because man.
These are the HBCUs. They need to be lifted.
And I don't feel like the schools get the love and appreciation the institutions, the black institutions don't get that love. Well, here's an opportunity to give them, give them some limelight in this partnership.
There's also, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful movements that you've been spearheading, which has been the Juneteenth Pledge, where you've said, as black Americans for many, many, many decades, people have said, hey, guys, why is Juneteenth not celebrated as a day when we can say that unanimously black people in this country received their freedom, And some critics have obviously said well, you've got fourth of July, and
it's like, yeah, but for everyone to be free. You kicked off the Juneteenth Pledge, and you realize something really smart. You said, look, you may not get the government to initiate it, but most people work for a company, and so companies can make this a public holiday that is paid. How much progress of you mean? And why do you think it's so important to do this?
Everything boils down to what we're buying.
Especially if COVID has not taught us anything beyond the fact that we haven't been selfless enough with each other and wearing our mask. It's also taught us that people are buying, you know what I'm saying. And before we have been more of a consumer base than anything else. And I think the smart companies are recognizing that they know that the consumer base is paying attention and they have opinions, and they vote, and they and they activate.
If you will, with their dollar.
So to see these companies come on and and and just jump in like that, that's just been great. I want to just tell you some of the people who have taken the pledge, as Adidas, Nike, Levi's Target, Wow.
Wow, Walmart, is coming. I'm gonna say that right now. Come on Walmart, come up, Wall Wallmart.
It's important that the big behemoths, you know, get involved.
Right And I remember, I remember when we spoke about this a while ago. You were like, yo, man, we got to get your people involved. And I'm excited. We've been keeping it under wraps for a while. I was waiting for you to come on the show. But Viacom CBS our parent company, So everything from Nickelodeon through CHAMTV they're joining in. They've signed this pledge as well, the Juneteenth Pledge. So we're getting all the behemits involved, and
so I hope we hope on pushing. Man. I'm glad that we can be a part of it, and I hope that we can get as many of these corporations together so that everyone in the country at some point goes like, all right, man, this is the day when we celebrate the promise of freedom that was denied from so many for so long.
So yeah, absolutely, it's you guys.
If you're paying attention out there, it's the Juneteenth Pledge dot com you can go on. So, by the way, you don't have to be a big behemoth like what Trevor and I are talking about, because we want all the big guys too, but the small businesses.
Man. This is the thing is is that I love Fourth of July. I do. I was red, white, and blue.
You know, burgers, hot dogs, like chips, Like, who doesn't love that, fireworks?
It's great.
But my ancestors fought in that war when they were not free, you know, and they fought in that war willingly. Like they wanted their what should have just simply been their white brothers and sisters, but it was their masters at the time. For the most part, they wanted them.
They wanted to see them have their independence. And like, the thing is, if Juneteenth is the official day when all Americans were free and shout to our you know, First Nations brothers and sisters because they haven't been treated so well. But Juneteenth is pretty much when everybody was
supposed to be free. So I feel like it's something that all Americans should be celebrating, right, you know, because by the way, we were set free in eighteen sixty three, but you know, they didn't choose to acknowledge it until eighteen sixty five, So you got to understand that that is a it was long overdue then, and it's long overdue now.
I feel you that man, Barroh Williams. Congratulations on everything that you were doing until I chat to you again, my friend, look off to yourself. Stay grateful.
Thank you so much for everything. Man, everything that you're doing. It's awesome.
I appreciate you my doing.
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