Colin Kaepernick Quotes Frederick Douglass Out of Context, Gets History Lesson from Sen. Ted Cruz
“READ THE ENTIRE SPEECH”
Revisionism is a scourge. Cherry picking quotes to suit your own political agenda, when those quotes are in no way congruent with your agenda, is just as bad.
Colin Kaepernick did just that, plucked a Frederick Douglass quote out of context and tweeted it with a patriotic gif. And then Ted Cruz happened.
The quote:
“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
Anyone who has read anything by Frederick Douglass would know instantly that this is not in the spirit of his writings nor his overarching philosophy. At least not as stated.
Sen. Ted Cruz piped in and was quick to correct Kapernick’s error:
You quote a mighty and historic speech by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but, without context, many modern readers will misunderstand. Two critical points: https://t.co/x4oLfa9DrH
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019
(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
“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.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019
“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.”
— 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
Link to the entire speech is here.
Relevant:
“Keeping the troubles”
— Booker T. Washington
pic.twitter.com/7CgsZFqGJM— ƬЄƛƓƛƝ ƦЄƖԼԼƳ ???? (@velvethammer) July 4, 2019
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Comments
Frederick Douglas
Oopsies, Frederick D. has two “ss”s. The contemporary Douglas with one “s” was Stephen, the D’rat Senator from Illinois, all-around short guy and the fellow who introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 . . . a bit of villainy which inspired the formation of the Republican Party later that same year.
Can we settle on Douglas Dauntless?
If lefties didn’t lie, they’d have nothing to say.
The left – always wrong, but never in doubt.
Applies to them all = “The arrogance – and the stupidity – are strong in this one”
RE: “The left – always wrong, but never in doubt.”
Perfect description of psychopaths – of which the Democrat Party consists almost in toto now.
Just remember that even a “partial truth” is a perfect total lie.
The idea of the ‘left’ is akin to the mafia. In much the same way that the mafia is parasitical, so is the left.
The mafia’s goal is to gain a monopoly on violence and extort payment and position. The left’s goal is EXACTLY Bthe same.
Like the mafia, the left has a few ‘made’ leaders, and it has an army of associates and wanna-bees. The left too, has it’s ‘made’ members (soros, obama, jarrett, havard, the ny times, jeff bezos and the wapo, google, sanders, and the like) and lots of associates (every college professor, that idiot endorsing nike) and wanna-bees (the followers of the likes of black lives matter and the white kids following them because of fashion.
If the left gains power, they will kill their opposition. Obama’s weaponizing the IRS with Lois Lerner and obama and hillary clinton]s corrupting the FBI and CIA was just a taste.
If the left gains power, what will you do when ‘doxing’ is done by the government? (Just look at the mayor of Portland, who enables his antifa army to seize power in the streets – adolph hitler’s brownshirts would be proud.)
How long before the Woke-arazzi decide Frederick Douglas was an advocate for White Power and a member of the KKK?
Former Football player turned SJW gets it wrong/lies…
Quelle suprise
Posturing is so important these days, on both sides.
It’s possible Cruz reads Frederick Douglass for pleasure but I doubt it. Most likely it’s a gotcha discovery all around; somebody checking up on the quote sent to Kaepernick by somebody else, and sending it to Cruz.
Two ghosts and clickbait.
Anyone who learned American history properly, learned that Douglass did not hate this country like this jerk Kaepernick does.
I doubt Cruz had the words of Douglass memorized. But I believe he knew that Tweet was idiotic because that Douglass speech is probably his most well-known. I’ve read it. I’m gonna guess I’m not the only one in America familiar with it before yesterday. It should have been taught in every American classroom. Obviously, it wasn’t taught when that ex-QB ingrate was in school, or he was too stupid to understand and pay attention to it.
Douglass and Booker T. and others at the time wanted America to live up to the standards the Founders set – not throw the country in the trash. The ignorance about them today by the people who claim them as their defenders is off the charts.
For the record, I read Douglass and Booker T. for pleasure. Some of us like to actually know our history.
Exactly
Well, yes, there are people who like this or that. It’s just that it’s rare, considering that you have to be a person who likes to read stuff and who happens to like that stuff. It’s just that it’s rare in a particular case, so you’re most likely to be one of the emailing ghosts to people who don’t read but have a need for that voice in the click wars.
I myself can supply good Coleridge quotes. He used to write op-eds. The need hasn’t come up recently, unless somebody wants a defense of George Washington. What’s that mural thing in California… Coleridge wrote a high-praise obit of Washington.
Gotcha. I agree it’s rare to find people who are history literate instead of illiterate. And I have no clue whether Cruz was familiar with it. I would lean yes because I’m from Texas and heard him speak a few times (not about Douglass), but he seems like he’s got a good grasp on American history.
You would crush me in a Coleridge quotes contest. And you would win after 1-0, I can’t even come up with one. I’m embarrassed to say that I have more than 20 books on George Washington but was not familiar with a Coleridge defense of him. Thanks for educating me, I will look into that.
Obit, google “the officers and sailors of the American ships in the port of London” dated in _Essays on his Times I_ p.131 27 Jan 1800.
On Washington’s Will google “We would fain believe that the whole of General Washington’s will” dated 25 Mar 1800 in _Essays on his Times I_ p.228
Lots of Washington references in the index to The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Essays on his Times, 3 volumes compromising collectively volume 3 of that series, Pricneton University Press, probably out of print and in any case overpriced. The index being in volume 3 of that set.
Well, I knew that Douglass was taken out of context and said good things about America and the Declaration in that speech. I didn’t have to look it up, either. Though I am a bit of a fan since my wife is related to Douglass by marriage, it doesn’t take much effort to be familiar with that speech – it is quite famous.
If the Left wants a poster child for severely brain damaged football players – Colin is it!
Methinks is Communist “girlfriend” handler would be a close second.
She must be very good at some things.
I first learned of Fredrick Douglass in 5th Grade American History. A sideblock in the text book, which, alas would be a college text in this day and age if they were not reading the reprehensible and discredited Zinn. In High School American History we were required to read selected letters and speeches. As such one would be shocked to read the excerpt by that idiot former quarterback and current head of Nike, as a stand alone position. Because Douglass was a Republican for almost 20 years, in spite of being nominated by a 3rd party for the position of vice president.
I politely suggest not ascribing to ignorance what is rightfully ascribed to conscious and willful revisionism.
Kapernick and his ilk would have you believe that the War of Independence was fought over slavery where the British were fighting to liberate the slaves.
And so these ignoramii claim that the Betsy Ross flag is an offensive symbol of slavery and white oppression. The leap from truth to unabashed lying is astounding. Yet they are succeeding in rewriting/ERASING our history. If they succeed, they will find it very dismaying to then be telling their history in a historic vacuum.
I believe Frederick Douglass hang our modern “abolitionists” personally. He and Lincoln were good friends and no one wept more after the assassination than the freed slaves. But then Abe is different because they insist he was gay which absolves all sins.
The Left will misquote or fabricate as need be. Clinton and “blessed are the peacekeepers…” Freed from facts and truth… everything is in play especially when never called out by the MSM.
BTW, Julian Castro is another intellectual light weight that slept thru American history classes. He believes the Ross flag has something to do with the Confederacy. Ross was an abolitionist. The first confederate flag did resemble the Ross flag, but was actually based on the Austrian flag. But of course Castro failed to do even the rudimentary research that would have revealed such in 3 minutes.
Where Kapernick kneels, the abolitionists stood, and sacrificed blood and treasure to abort the persistence and progress of involuntary exploitation, redistributive change, and rabid diversity.
The moronic class of spoiled white kids and black activists and their followers will surely read Ted’s response. Or not.
The only way Ted could have made an impact with this statement was to have made it on a college campus.
This isn’t Libya, not Pakistan, not Kiev, not even South Africa, and yet the social justice activists use the same brittle foundation to construct their apologies. #WitchHunts #WarlockTrials #RabidDiversity #HateLovesAbortion
“I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.”
~ Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852
From Henry Louis Gates, Jr., of the “beer summit” fame:
>> In fact, in 1872, Douglass wondered aloud “why anyone should leave this land of progress and enlightenment and seek a home amid the death-dealing malaria of a barbarous continent.” The Western stereotype of Africa and its black citizens as devoid of reason and, therefore, subhuman was often shared by white master and black ex-slave alike. Writing early in the nineteenth century, a group of free blacks in Philadelphia adopted the following resolution:
Resolved that, without art, without science, without a proper knowledge of government, to cast into the savage wilds of Africa the free people of color seems to us the circuitous route through which they must return to perpetual bondage.
Douglass would give voice to still another cause for anxiety among African Americans toward their ancestral kinsmen: slavery, and its complex historical causes, including black African complicity in its origins. Douglass wrote, “the savage chiefs of the western coasts of Africa, who for ages have been accustomed to selling their captives into bondage, and pocketing the ready cash for them will not more readily accept our moral and economical ideas than the slave traders of Maryland and Virginia. We are, therefore, less inclined to go to Africa to work against the slave-trade than to stay here to work against it.”
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/g/gates-wonders.html?_r=1
Kapernick shows the true Dem method of speaking and that is to not know the facts about which he speaks thus ends up lying, but his intentions were noble. AOC, Biden, Harris Sparty, Warren all tell lies about facts but never facts about the issues.