MSNBC host Al Sharpton sharply criticized plans for a UFC event at the White House, arguing Friday that the spectacle reflects an effort to romanticize periods of American history marked by slavery and racial injustice.
Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Sharpton contended that celebrations surrounding America’s 250th anniversary should focus not on the nation’s shortcomings but on those who fought to expand freedom and equality beyond what existed at the country’s founding.
Sharpton noted that many Americans were excluded from basic rights at the time the Declaration of Independence was signed.
“The fact is that 250 years ago, when they signed the Declaration of Independence, we were enslaved. Women couldn’t vote; only white male landowners could. So if we want to celebrate something, celebrate the people that corrected. Right. The, the insidious behavior of some of the Founding Fathers who extolled the right virtues but didn’t practice them for all people at all genders. I think that we have to do that very loudly, very boldly and unapologetically.”
He went on to point to the civil rights movement as an example of how progress was achieved through sacrifice and struggle rather than through political rhetoric alone.
“I mean, we’re going to Washington on the anniversary of the March on Washington, 63 August 28 this year. We need to bring out that yes, we went from slavery to a President of the United States of color, but it was bloodshed, it was nights in jail, it was beatings. It was all kinds of things that got us there. Let’s celebrate how we grew and the people that paid the price for it, and that are continuing to pay the price now, because when we’re dealing with this redistricting, Trump and others are trying to bring us back to an America that we struggled to get out of. So there is a connection of why that they’re having these fights on the White House lawn, the UFO, whatever they call UFC, and all that because they’re trying to go back to that when, you know, they’d watch people have these fights, for the slave masters, and they’d be entertained, but they’re literally going back to that.”
Sharpton also renewed criticism of Trump’s admiration for President Andrew Jackson, arguing that the symbolism reflects a desire to return to a darker chapter of American history.
He recalled that one of the first actions Trump took after entering the Oval Office in 2017 was prominently displaying a portrait of Jackson.
“When Donald Trump first was elected in 2016, in 2017, when he went to the Oval Office, one of the first things he did was hang a picture of President Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson was the slave owning president who nominated Judge Roger Taney to the Supreme Court. Taney became the Chief Justice that saw the Dred Scott decision passed. Why didn’t anybody ask Trump why Andrew Jackson? I don’t even remember reading about him in elementary school. Why Jackson? That’s the kind of country he wants us to go back to Andrew Jackson. And we must resist that with all we have.”
{Matzav.com}