Juneteenth’s real meaning is written on the plates of smoked meats, potato salad and watermelon

By Bobby J. Smith II, Associate Professor of African American Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

“Visiting Comanche Crossing on Juneteenth felt like freedom,” my father said as we pulled into Booker T. Washington Park, the site near what used to be known as the historic Comanche Crossing on Lake Mexia in Texas. “Listen, Bobby, this place would be full of Black folks cooking, dancing, and playing music. It was a big festival with fireworks and a party.”

It had been more than six decades since my father had visited the park in the summer…

Read complete article

~	Americans keep voting for scandal-prone candidates because they just don’t want the other party to win

~	How LGBTQ employees at Kodak risked their careers to build a safer, more inclusive workplace

~	How China’s ‘red lines’ are quietly shaping global news reporting

~	US-Iran deal leaves the future of Lebanon uncertain – and subject to Israel playing the spoiler

~	What’s in the US-Iran peace deal? A lot of concessions and empty promises from Trump, in return for little

~	Grattan on Friday: Albanese government gives ground on tax, but how much will it have to cede on the NDIS?

~	Bunk’Art: Dealing with the legacy of Albania’s communist regime

~	Thousands of stateless people live in limbo due to gaps in Australia’s system: report

~	Jeremy Clarkson has aggressive prostate cancer. But what makes some cancers more aggressive than others?

~	Vodafone has suffered another major outage. A telco expert explains what went wrong