Happy Juneteenth!

by Jon Scaccia June 18, 2021

I was reading some commentary on Axios this morning that remarked on the “dizzying pace of this milestone.” It’s a wonderful reminder that while progress can be slow, action can be fast.

As a proxy indicator of that slowness, I couldn’t find a single academic article on Juneteenth in PubTrawlr. Granted, we focus more on the biomedical and social sciences, but it’s clear that research into the newest U.S. holiday hasn’t broken through. Given the recent hyper focus on health equity in public health, it was surprising.

I don’t want to end on a downer, though, so here’s a graph of recent Twitter chatter on #juneteenth.

Nice to see “tireless advocacy” jump out right in the middle!

Here’s a quote from Biden that’s a good way to close.

“You know, I said a few weeks ago, marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments. Great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments. They don’t ignore those moments of the past. They embrace them. Great nations don’t walk away. We come to terms with the mistakes we made. And in remembering those moments, we begin to heal and grow stronger.