Last year, the Castro-loving Colin Kaepernick raised $20,000 for a group honoring a cop-killer on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list, JoAnne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur. Yet, when Kaepernick called Nike and told them he was offended by the U.S. flag, specifically the Betsy Ross flag, Nike deferred to the supporter of cop killing terrorists.
Why should things be different on the Fourth of July?
The multi-millionaire Nike brand ambassador posted a pre-Civil War quote by Frederick Douglass calling the United States the worst nation in the history of the world. The quote was out of context.
The Nike icon Kaepernick linked to a video.
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In the short clip, you will see fleeting images of slavery, the KKK, lynchings, and police brutality with a narrator reading that line from Douglass’s July 5, 1852 speech on slavery.
The quote was taken from Douglass’s speech known as, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.”
Less than ten years later, the Civil War was fought to end slavery, but Kaepernick does not mention that, nor does he make note of the fact that Douglass embraced the United States and the future it could have. He never gave up on America.
“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
– Frederick Douglass pic.twitter.com/IWLujGCJHn— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2019
SENATOR CRUZ PUT THE QUOTE IN CONTEXT
“You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass,” Sen. Cruz writes in response, “but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand.”
Cruz acknowledges that slavery was an “abomination” in the U.S. but was eliminated through the efforts of Douglass and “so many other heroes.”
The senator then asserts that Douglass “was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery.”
“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.
“There are forces in operation, which must inevitably, work the downfall of slavery. ‘The arm of the Lord is not shortened,’ and the doom of slavery is certain.
“I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from ‘the Declaration of Independence,’ the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.”
After quoting Douglass, Cruz then writes: “Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice.”
Senator Cruz linked to the FULL SPEECH.
THE TWEETS
(1) This speech was given in 1852, before the Civil War, when the abomination of slavery still existed. Thanks to Douglass and so many other heroes, we ended that grotesque evil and have made enormous strides to protecting the civil rights of everybody.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019
(2) Douglass was not anti-American; he was, rightly and passionately, anti-slavery. Indeed, he concluded the speech as follows:
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019
“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019
Let me encourage everyone, READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH; it is powerful, inspirational, and historically important in bending the arc of history towards justice: https://t.co/il9WNrmxho
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019
wpDiscuz
