Juneteenth Appropriated?

President Trump will hold a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma next Friday, June 19th.  The choice of date and location has drawn harsh criticism of a president whose words have done so much to validate the endemic racism that has afflicted this nation for over four centuries.

The date is the one on which the long-delayed implementation of the Emancipation of enslaved Africans was initiated in Texas in 1865, commemorated by celebrations of "Juneteenth."

The location - Tulsa - was the site of a massacre of Black residents of the city's Greenwood district.  Hundreds of Black Americans were killed, and the district - home to a thriving business community - was largely destroyed, beginning over Memorial Day weekend in 1921.

While racial killings - including massacres - have been many in US history, the destruction of Greenwood and the number of murders committed there hold an especially ignominious place.

It is impossible to know whether Mr. Trump had any idea, when this rally was planned, that either the date or the location was of any special significance.  After all, this is the same fellow who said, during Black History Month in 2017, that "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more" - as though Douglass is alive today and doing important things in the service of his country.  [One can imagine that Trump was really talking about the legacy of Douglass, but it is difficult to credit that notion.]

A solution to this quandary immediately leaps to mind.

President Trump could select the occasion of this campaign rally to tell the American people he is working on a comprehensive plan of reparations to African Americans for more than four centuries of slavery and brutal oppression, details to be made public over the next several months.  He could mention a dollar figure: there is quite a range possible, as estimates of the total amount required in the cause of racial justice range from $1.4 trillion to $17 trillion.  Anything remotely approaching the latter number would have to be spread out over a decade.

The president could thereby transform his public image - from that of a leader of a cult of personality, lacking any admirers outside of his loyal following, and devoid of any but the dimmest perceptions of our nation's annals - to a transformative and heroic torchbearer of freedom, establishing a legacy in US history to be esteemed for many generations to come.

Yes, I know.  Given Trump's denial, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, that there is systemic racism in America, emphasized this week by his sending messengers from his Administration - including Attorney General William Barr and Director of the National Economic Council Lawrence Kudlow - to reinforce that claim, it seems most improbable.

But to quote one of my heroes: