National Juneteenth Celebration A Dud As DEI Funding Disappears

In June 2009 the Obama Administration officially designated the month of June as “Pride Month”, and with a snap of his fingers and billions of dollars in government subsidies, the concept slowly turned into a cultural plague, much like an annual flu that sticks around for three weeks longer than it should.

By the time Obama’s Vice President, Joe Biden, entered the White House in 2021, pride parades were heavily funded events backed by federal agencies like USAID along with numerous corporations looking for ESG points and easy money.  After the BLM riots, Democrats were looking for a way to cement the minority vote in their favor while also continuously pressing racial division. 

The Biden Admin decided to federally recognize “Juneteenth”, a “celebration” of the emancipation of slaves that no one had ever heard of until the Democrats made it official.

Rather than acting as a tool for racial healing, Juneteenth has become yet another attempt to incessantly inject racial conflict as its proponents assert that white Americans today need to pay for the slavery of centuries ago.  Never mind that white Americans fought a bloody civil war in part to end the practice.  Never mind that it’s an institution that existed for thousands of years before the US was founded, yet progressives seem to think slavery is exclusively American.  

No one in the west needs a reminder that slavery is bad. 

The artificial popularity of these DEI events has been made evident this June with the erasure of bureaucratic handouts and a sharp pullback in corporate participation.  Juneteenth has been a dud in 2025 and the political left is not happy about it.  

Huffington Post notes that the decline in monetary support is aggressive, but progressives have their own theories on why it’s happening.

“After the 2020 murder of George Floyd, many companies pursued efforts to make their branding more inclusive, but it has slowed down over the past few years after some received blowback from conservatives and because many companies didn’t see it as an important part of their revenue stream, said Dionne Nickerson, a professor in marketing at Emory University. 

Some companies can no longer afford to support Juneteenth celebrations because they just don’t have the money given the economic uncertainty, according to Sonya Grier, a marketing professor at American University…”

“Many state and local governments hold or help fund celebrations, but some decided not to this year…”

The Post also mentions that cuts to federal funds might just be the cause of the downturn in Junteenth events.  Though, it’s unlikely that the establishment media will ever admit the underlying truth: That almost no one is going to engage in DEI events without loads of government cash floating around. 

“Many local organizations have also had their budgets slashed after the National Endowment for the Arts pulled funding for numerous grants in May. 

The Cooper Family Foundation throws one of the largest Juneteenth celebrations in San Diego each year. It was one of dozens of groups told by the NEA in May that its $25,000 grant was being rescinded.  The email said the event no longer aligned with the agency’s priorities, said Maliya Jones, who works for the foundation…”

The NEA announced in February that they would end all grants for DEI related programs and they have made good on their word.  Leftists argue that the “fight must continue” without the aid of companies and government cash, but the reality is that there is no fight.  Black Americans have had equal rights for many decades and there is nothing for activists to achieve.  

What DEI events are really about is fomenting a false sense of victimhood and endless civil instability.  Activists need the “fight” to continue forever, because cultural conflict is how they make their money and how they gain political leverage.  Thankfully, the majority of the American public has no interest in playing this game and Juneteenth will inevitably go back into obscurity.