#but i remember getting like irrationally angry when we were learning about ruby bridges in the 7th grade at a general public school

[nero-neptune]

i went to an all black school for like a few years so we were taught about juneteenth bc obviously black history was very important in that school (alongside just general baptist stuff bc it was also a christian school, so we learned so, so, so many gospel songs and such). but the importance of black history was so emphasized, that we had a black history performance art thing every year that every kid participated in (i did a song one year and my sister recited a poem), we went to the national black arts festival, participated in a black history academic bowl (which we lost this one time for bullshit reasons lol), watched black history movies, and memorized significant black poems (like works by langston hughes and maya angelou, even though us kids were only about 8 to 10 years old at the time. i could still recite them now probably). we learned and performed the black national anthem ("life ev'ry voice and sing") a number of times at random events (which is a song that i'm sure every black american knows).

the point being that black history was a big, big deal to this black school and they wanted so badly to hone a love of our history in all these black kids that, while teaching us general school subjects, they'd regularly inject some black history into it (like in one science class, we were all instructed to do a presentation on a black scientist of our choosing- mine was george washington carver one time). so with juneteenth, the inevitable watering down of that just makes me a little sad