A FOX Business host believes that Juneteenth must be celebrated not to rewrite the past, but to acknowledge it and move forward in a new direction without being limited by its hauntings.
Last week, President Joe Biden signed into law the "Juneteenth National Independence Day Act," which declares June 19th as an official federal holiday, which celebrates the end of slavery on the same day in 1865. The measure was passed through Congress with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, while the House passed it with a 415-14 vote, with all "no" votes coming from Congressional Republicans.
Now, Charles Payne of FOX Business' "Making Money with Charles Payne" is encouraging Americans to approach Juneteenth in a different manner. Arguing that the holiday is "already being politicized or deliberately misconstrued even before the ink is dried," he believes that "nobody is confusing this with July 4th, Independence Day. And its creation belies the constant screams that this nation does not admit to its past, the good and the bad," Red State reported.
Instead, the FOX host believes that Juneteenth should be about recognizing the past for what it is: slavery of blacks and people of color at the hands of white, privileged folks. This past, according to Payne, must not be rewritten but instead should be acknowledged in order to move forward.
"We can never rewrite the past and I don't think we should start rewriting the past," the 60 year old former U.S. Air Force security officer and Wall Street professional argued. He became the host of "Making Money with Charles Payne" in 2014.
Payne argued that Juneteenth should be the reminder for all Americans to "acknowledge the past while freeing us up, all, to look ahead." He likened Gen. Gordon Granger's determination to get to the slaves in Galveston, Texas back in the 1800's to "the driving undercurrent in American history to keep marching toward what is right, to keep marching toward a more perfect union."
Payne also theorized that the slaves of 1865 did not spend time "lamenting on how long it took to learn of the news, or even the plight of their bondage" but instead had reveled in what it meant to be free and lived their lives accordingly.
The FOX host shared that Juneteenth actually reminded him of his mother who raised her children to "seize the future and not be chained to the past. Not to allow the bondage of yesteryear (to) stall our own potential, our own opportunities."
This is exactly what critical race theory detractors believe in: that no person of color is oppressed today because they were oppressed in the past by a white person. Like Payne, President Biden called to move away from the "long, hard night of slavery and subjugation" into a "brighter morning to come."
During the signing of the Juneteenth law, the President highlighted America's "extraordinary capacity to heal, and to hope, and to emerge from the most painful moments and a bitter, bitter version of ourselves, but to make a better version of ourselves."
