Corporations hoping to cash in on Juneteenth celebrations are now walking back their efforts after facing backlash on social media. Walmart has apologized after critics called the retailer out for selling Juneteenth-themed ice cream, saying commercialization of the holiday waters down its true meaning and history. Donald Norman-Cox, Founder of Juneteenth University, explains his perspective on why this might not be as bad as people think. 

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The Commercialization Of Juneteenth: The Good and The Bad

here with more insight. Donald norman cox founder of juneteenth University, thank you so much for joining us. What is your take on whether or not commercialization of this holiday is problematic or not. 1st thank you for having me. I do not believe that there is a problem. I don't have a problem with commercialization. If you understand the history of juneteenth and its role in the black community in texas, um, do a commercial be criticized? Um, it would be venerated in that um, cannot be um, please only own large businesses. It's very generic. So when you're against commercialism, you're against it. Big companies, little companies, everybody, I think they should have been a little bit more specific. Let me explain this, juneteenth was the, was a huge economic engine for the Freedman's community in texas after emancipation, it grew to the point where um Jim was like christmas for businesses in the black community. Um, that whole argument about ice cream um was a big deal to people who live outside of the state of texas, but many of the people in the state of texas know that juneteenth ice cream has been sold In stores since the 1930s. That's not new. What was new? Was that Walmart was selling it? So, you know, the issue should be a narrow to a question of whether large corporations should uh capitalize on it and the control of that is in the hands of the buyers if you don't want walmart or any other large corporations profiting from Jim sing, don't buy their stuff. Yeah. Otherwise, you know, to cut out all all sales of juneteenth, whatever your, your homing the little companies, the mom and pop companies that have, I look forward to for a long time. That's new too. People outside of texas, but in texas, that's just the way it is. Yeah. And donald, I think I want to come in here with some context. This has been a huge issue for corporations when we talk about things like rainbow fishing using a rainbow flag during pride month and generating profits for, again, as you mentioned, these large corporations, what do you think it is that large corporations need to do when it comes to celebrating these holidays and potentially the commercialization making profits during a holiday like juneteenth. Um, what does that mean for the community? How can they engage more with the community and make this something that's authentically giving back? Well, first of all, I think that the one thing that not just corporations, but everybody needs to do is to understand what is the purpose of june team, what, what is that holiday? Because a lot of the news that you hear that I hear about it, it's just flat wrong. And so if you don't really know what you're celebrating, it's hard to know how to celebrate it. So I would think that they would get their facts right to begin with, Um two and then um, determine what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. You know, I mean we have to be realistic This is a national holiday and on our national holidays we buy mattresses and all that other stuff because they all turn into big sales opportunity that's going to happen here. You know, it's, it's, it's not something that's going to go away. Um, I would hope that corporations would not just make a dollar off of it, but help their smaller peers to grow rather than forcing them out of the market. There are large stores now that still they took the ice cream off the shelf, but they put the, they loved the t shirts, et cetera there. The small businesses have been selling t shirts, june teams forever. And so, um, now that the big stores are doing it, my fear is that people will stop looking for the little places and go for the most convenient and we would be harming ourselves. I don't really see that the major corporations have too much choice in what they can do. They sell stuff and make a dollar off they done. So, um, I just don't want to see them. Um, put the small businesses that have thrived off of drinking out of business. Right? It's a valid point 2020 2024. That's the year that we're gonna see where Juneteenth is headed. Why is that? Because it's worth noting this is the first time that the holiday is being celebrated as a federal holiday has been celebrated for decades. But um, up until this point, it is the first time it's being celebrated in this way. I'm wondering if you can also weigh in on your thoughts about this being a paid federal holiday because it's not for everyone across the board just yet. Um, I apologize for the noise, I'm, I'm in a mall and they're getting ready to open um, being I've done to try to answer some ability, but miss some, please remind me. Um, but first of all, the, the federal holiday and the state holiday are not identical. The state holiday gym team is only about solely about what happened in Galveston's. Um, and, and the arrival, the national holiday is actually about emancipation everywhere, regardless of when it happened, why it happened, how it happened. Mhm. The those two things are not identical because people don't really know what happened all the time, that all of the shows that I've seen, keep referring to juneteenth being about when Texans learned about the emancipation proclamation, That's not true. Texans knew about that thing from starting three years earlier. The news was not late. What was late with the guns. You know, they had to come here and enforce it. And that's what happened. The Texans knew about the emancipation proclamation, just like everybody else did. They just didn't care and nobody was able to make them care, you know, and so we got to get that, that straight. Um, the value of the purpose of the national holiday is to commemorate, Um, emancipation regardless of where emancipation in Texas was not more important than emancipation in Florida, which took place only 30 days before Texas, just 30 days. You know the way people tell it. Texas was 2.5 years late. Well, everybody was, nobody anticipated anybody until the war was over. Donald norman, cox, founder of juneteenth University, really appreciate your insight. Thank you so much for joining us today.