Radical members of Congress used the Fourth of July celebrations to attack the idea of America, making claims like the Declaration of Independence being racist, that blacks need not celebrate the day, that America is a threat to the world, and so on. July 4, 2021, marked the 245th anniversary of American independence when the Thirteen Colonies declared that they would cease to be subordinate to King George III, the monarch of Britain, and declared themselves free and united states.
Democrat Representative Maxine Waters, who is serving as the Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, slammed July Fourth as an independence day only for white men.
“Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. Equal to what? What men? Only white men? Isn’t it something that they wrote this in 1776 when African Americans were enslaved? They weren’t thinking about us then, but we’re thinking about us now!” Waters tweeted.
Waters went on to criticize the Declaration’s statement of equality by claiming that 17 states had “enacted voter suppression laws” and pointed to the fate of black Americans killed by police, like George Floyd, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, and Tamir Rice as proof that America is still rife with systemic racism.
In a tweet, Democrat Representative Cori Bush stated that when people say July Fourth is about American freedom, “the freedom they’re referring to is for white people.” America “is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free.”
America ‘grounded in racism’?
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Young Daddy, a Twitter account of journalist and TV host Toure, claimed that the reason the American colonies were seeking independence was because Britain was looking to abolish slavery. “Why would Black people celebrate a day so wrapped up in our enslavement?” he tweeted, while using an expletive to attack the holiday.
The Thirteen Colonies’ war of independence from Britain was primarily motivated by heavy taxes, lack of political representation, and British mercantilist policies which disadvantaged American businesses and workers.
Revisionist views of the United States’ founding have become more common in mainstream discourse, going hand in hand with radical left-wing ideologies such as Critical Race Theory that apply a Marxist analysis to American history, culture, and race relations.
On July 2, National Geographic published an article arguing that there was a “hidden toll” to July Fourth fireworks. Citing a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the article states that “vulnerable people and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to air pollution from firework celebrations.”
An essay published in Nation on July 2 not only stated that Americans who celebrate July Fourth fail to “reckon with the fact that the foundation of our nation were colonizers,” but also extended its view of America being a racist country to international policy.
“American exceptionalism is grounded in racism and militarism. It posits that the United States is a unique force for good in the world, exempt from the international laws and norms it expects other nations to follow, and is thus entitled to kill or subdue those who disobey its orders. It has resulted in US bombings and assassinations of people of color around the world criminalized as ‘terrorists’ or otherwise defined as dangerous ‘others’,” the article states.
The essay went on to say that America’s “greatest existential threats” were climate change, nuclear catastrophe, “militarized and racist policing,” etc. rather than “any imaginary threats” from Iran, Russia, China or global terrorism.
Communism by another name
Communist regimes in the Soviet Union and China conceived society as made up of mutually antagonistic economic classes. Claiming to represent the disadvantaged workers and farmers, communist movements of the 20th century murdered millions of aristocrats, business owners, landlords, and “wealthy” peasants, as well as those associated with the pre-communist culture, including monks and clergy.
This reached a fever pitch in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which built off decades of communist struggle to “destroy the four olds” of traditional culture. Tens of millions were persecuted for being in the wrong class or expressing the wrong opinions.
Critical Race Theory takes the same concept of struggle and applies it to race. It places white people as oppressors, while blacks, Native Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities are classified as oppressed.
One product of CRT is the 1619 Project, started by the New York Times to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”
In an interview with New York City WABC 770 AM radio, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lambasted CRT and the 1619 Project, which tries to establish the founding of America as not 1776, but 1619, the year that the trans-Atlantic slave trade began.
Pompeo warned in the interview that such viewpoints entering the mainstream or being taught in schools would strike “at the very foundations” of America and divide the country.
“I’m an optimist, but I do worry that if we become fractured or if we lose faith in our constitutional principles, that somewhere somehow or some adversary, like the Chinese Communist Party, will come and undermine what has made our country so special,” Pompeo said.
