(Headline USA) The Human Rights Campaign, a leftist LGBT group, came under fire this week after comparing Juneteenth and the “fight for black freedom” with LGBT advocacy.
“To honor #Juneteenth is to recognize the intersectionality between LGBTQ+ equality and racial justice. True Black liberation continues to be challenged today by systemic racism and oppression. Our fight for equality is synonymous with the fight for Black freedom,” the group tweeted.
Critics blasted HRC for trying to make the holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved black Americans during the Civil War era, about something it’s not.
“Right… because as my ancestors were toiling away on fields and dreaming of freedom, the prominent thought in their minds were ‘that whip might hurt, but it doesn’t hurt anywhere as badly as LGBTQ+ oppression,'” Zeek Arkham tweeted.
Twitter user Rebecca Velo agreed: “Can white liberals allow even ONE day for other people? Or does everything have to revolve around them?”
Conservative commentator Delano Squires blasted HRC as “colonizers.”
“For all the talk about ‘colonizers’, I have never seen a political movement representing so few people be so successful at extracting the resources (eg., history, imagery, rhetoric) from other movements and using them for their own purposes,” he said.
Even liberal users blasted the group for co-opting the holiday.
This is how embarrassed I am now to wear your symbol on my helmet.
Now you see it
Now you don’t pic.twitter.com/fucYlUmx7Y— Andy Stevens 🇺🇸 (@mrandystevens) June 19, 2023
Moreover, conservative commentator James Lindsay pointed out that much of the black community opposes LGBT values:
Almost all black men hate the Queer Agenda pushed by these tyrannical degenerates. https://t.co/0vtsTWFbE8
— James Lindsay, king of your mom (@ConceptualJames) June 19, 2023
The HRC’s virtue-signaling is one of the reasons why some black Americans think mainstreaming Juneteenth was a mistake.
In an article for the Daily Beast titled “Can We Admit Mainstreaming Juneteenth Has Been a Disaster?” writer Ernest Owens argued that pandering by white Democrats and corporations has destroyed the holiday’s meaning.
“Juneteenth has quickly descended into the rainbow capitalism vibes of Pride month,” he wrote. “I started to notice it last year when Walmart thought it was being progressive when they released a red velvet and cheesecake-flavored Juneteenth ice cream with a Pan-African decorated carton.”
