If you oppose Juneteenth, you agree with critical race theory
Critical race theory is a racist ideology. This once-fringe philosophy that has now permeated mainstream politics and media teaches that black men and women have never truly been a part of America. It posits that America’s original sin of slavery, going back all the way to 1619, was our country’s…
Critical race theory is a racist ideology. This once-fringe philosophy that has now permeated mainstream politics and media teaches that black men and women have never truly been a part of America. It posits that America’s original sin of slavery, going back all the way to 1619, was our country’s true founding, forever holding black people down. And eternally damning any Americans with white skin for the evil their kind has done.
This is insane. It means if you have white skin, you are bad. Period. There is no chance for redemption. Conservatives are right to want to keep critical race theory away from their children and anyone else.
Patriots see America in a different way. The principles of liberty declared when we announced our independence in 1776, outlined in our Constitution, make America the greatest nation in the world. Being men, who are fallen and prone to sin, our country hasn’t always lived up to the principles of liberty. Slavery is the most glaring example of our national hypocrisy.
But we eventually ended slavery. A century later, the civil rights movement helped bring an end to segregation and Jim Crow. President Donald Trump did a wonderful thing in signing the First Step Act in 2018, which allowed so many men and women of color who had been locked up for decades for nonviolent crimes, thanks to the draconian 1994 crime bill sponsored by Joe Biden, to regain their liberty.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s message was never that America was evil, only that everyone had not shared in the freedom to which we all aspire equally. He preached that all men should be treated by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
Critical race theory judges everyone by the color of their skin. So did slave owners of the 18th and 19th centuries, who viewed black people as prospective property. A Civil War was fought that led to President Abraham Lincoln issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in all the states.
On June 19, 1865, the last enslaved Americans were informed they had been freed. Since at least 1867, black Americans have celebrated this date in various ways. On Thursday, it became a national holiday.
Some conservatives have a problem with this. These conservatives are essentially proving critical race theory advocates right.
There has been no worse experience for black people in our country than slavery, and that’s saying a lot. Finally abolishing slavery is understandably a source of great joy. In practical terms, freeing men and women from actual bondage is a cause for celebration even greater than the political bondage the American colonists felt they suffered under England’s rule.
But no one is calling to supplant the Fourth of July with Juneteenth. Black Americans only want Juneteenth to be recognized and respected as a crucial part of their experience in our country. Critical race theorists say black people have no worthy stake in America. It’s sad to see some conservatives de facto agreeing with these far-left lunatics. The hard Left wants to tear down America’s history out of racial grievance. What we should be doing is what Dr. King preached, giving black people equal treatment. We should be adding to our customs in the name of equality and a fuller liberty for all. Not erasing America.
The Week’s Joel Mathis observed on Thursday of the critical race theory-based 1619 Project, "The problem with the 1619 Project is that it effectively — and ahistorically — makes slavery America's founding mission rather than its greatest sin. A celebration of emancipation in fulfillment of our 1776 founding principles does the opposite. The way to unify a diverse and divided country is to keep adding to the pantheon rather than canceling what is already there. ... Martin Luther King and Thomas Jefferson, Juneteenth and Fourth of July together."
Our liberties are God-given. No man has the right to take them away. If we truly believe in our founding principles, we should acknowledge the liberty many of our countrymen were once denied.
And today, we should respect black Americans’ long-held jubilation that that torment finally ended. Anything less would be un-American.
