Juneteenth is ???? ???a holiday at Tesla and SpaceX now, but it's not that simple.
Elon Musk announced the company policy on Twitter on Friday. Also known as Freedom Day, the holiday commemorates the day Major General Gordon Granger and Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with federal orders that the state's enslaved people were declared free. The day has not only come to symbolize the end of slavery in the United States, but also the continued fight against systemic oppression of Black people.
The day carries extra weight this year. It comes after weeks of protests against police brutality in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white police officer. While the day is considered a state holiday in Texas and official one in New York City, it isn't yet a federal holiday. Many organizations, including Nike, Twitter, and the NFL are commemorating Juneteenth by giving employees a paid holiday. Others are taking smaller steps, like Google, which has just asked for employees to cancel unnecessary meetings on Friday.
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Tesla and SpaceX are joining in, sort of. Musk tweeted that the day is "considered a U.S. holiday" at both companies.
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But when a Twitter user expressed his appreciation, Musk clarified that like other holidays at Tesla and SpaceX, employees had to use their previously allotted paid time off, or a vacation day, to have the day off from work.
This comes after CNBC reported on internal emails that showed Tesla first told employees they could take Juneteenth off, but it would be considered an unpaid absence. Tesla also told employees they could take off after many had already started their work day, according to emails shared on Twitter by Buzzfeed News reporter Ryan Mac.
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So his nod to Juneteenth, the history behind it, and the ongoing oppression that Black people in this country face doesn't quite hit the mark.
Musk was thoroughly eviscerated by other Twitter users.
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Meanwhile in Washington on Friday, Sens. Ed Markey, Corey Booker, Tina Smith, and Kamala Harris proposed a bill to make Juneteenth a national holiday. The last national holiday approved by Congress was Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.