Ohio businessman and Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is marking this Juneteenth with a call for the “emancipation of the American mind from psychological slavery based on race.”
Ramaswamy’s message comes as his GOP opponents, South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, push back on former President Barack Obama’s criticisms of their stances on race relations.
As Ramaswamy notes, Monday marked the 158th anniversary of the order by Major General Gordon Granger proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865. The day is now celebrated as an annual national holiday.
But the anti-woke crusader has campaigned for the White House in part on what he has described as the left’s “race cult,” divisive identity politics that serve to separate Americans instead of uniting them.
“On this Juneteenth, let us finally emancipate ourselves from the psychological slavery that our society perpetuates now,” Ramaswamy, a second generation Indian-American said in a statement. “Today, we should commit to finally emancipate our children from toxic dogmas that teach them they are ‘oppressed’ based on the color of their skin. Political and cultural leaders like Ibram Kendi, Ayanna Pressley, and Don Lemon assert that your skin color dictates the content of the views you’re allowed to espouse. This is un-American.”
Lemon, a far left host on CNN for years, was fired in April after a heated exchange on race in America with Ramaswamy in which Lemon, who is black, said it was “insulting” that the Republican Party candidate was “sitting here, whatever ethnicity you are, explaining to me what it’s like to be black in America.”
The biotech entrepreneur, the first millennial to run for the Republican presidential nomination, said Americans need to stop ceaselessly flogging themselves for “our failures more than 160 years ago.”
“Let’s instead celebrate the progress we have made to become the quintessential nation on Earth where no matter your skin color, you can achieve anything you ever want. That’s who we are,” Ramaswamy said.
Critics of controversial race-based education models, including critical race theory, assert teaching that America is systemically racist or a “white supremacist” society are only further dividing Americans — often in the pursuit of political power. A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds 51 percent of black Americans believe racism will only get worse in their lifetimes, even as 48 percent of respondents say it’s a “good time” to be black in America. The Post more than suggests the outlook has improved in the years since former President — and leading Republican presidential candidate — Donald Trump left office and Democrat Joe Biden replaced him.
Late last week, Obama criticized Republican presidential candidates such as Scott and Haley, accusing them of turning a blind eye to racial inequalities.
“I think there’s a long history of African-American or other minority candidates within the Republican Party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can make it.’ Nikki Haley I think has a similar approach,” Obama said Thursday on “The Axe Files with David Axelrod.”
“I’m not being cynical about Tim Scott individually, but I am maybe suggesting the rhetoric of ‘Can’t we all get along?’ … that has to be undergirded with an honest accounting of our past and our present,” added the Democrat, the first black (biracial) candidate elected to the highest office in the land.
Scott shot back, telling Fox News Sunday that “there’s no higher compliment than to be attacked by President Obama.”
“Whenever the Democrats feel threatened, they pull out, drag out the former President and have him make some negative comments about someone running, hoping that their numbers go down. Here is what people need to know, the truth of my life disproves the lies of the radical left,” said Scott, who has campaigned on a message of American opportunity for all while taking on the “oppressors and the oppressed” narrative of the left.
Haley, an Indian American who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Obama set minorities back by “singling them out as victims instead of empowering them.”
“In America, hard work & personal responsibility matter. My parents didn’t raise me to think that I would forever be a victim. They raised me to know that I was responsible for my success,” Haley tweeted.
.@BarackObama set minorities back by singling them out as victims instead of empowering them. In America, hard work & personal responsibility matter. My parents didn’t raise me to think that I would forever be a victim. They raised me to know that I was responsible for my…
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) June 16, 2023
In a 2020 Republican National Convention speech, Haley said, “America is not a racist country,” but “a story that’s a work in progress.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy.
