Former MSNBC host Joy Reid ignited a firestorm among conservatives after she criticized the Fourth of July, stating that Black people she knows are not excited about the holiday. In a conversation posted Friday with ex-colleague Alex Wagner, who now works for the renamed MS NOW, Reid referenced an 1850s speech by abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who decried the celebration as a reminder of the distance between enslaved Black people and free white Americans.
Reid's Comments on the Fourth of July
Wagner asked Reid about President Donald Trump's "despotic authoritarian way" of celebrating the Declaration of Independence's 250th birthday. Reid, who now hosts a show on YouTube, responded: "In many ways ― and with apologies to my dear spicy white friends because I know my white brothers and sisters do love a Fourth of July. It is Independence Day. Everybody's barbecuing. It's a thing. I can promise you Black folks, we will take that day off. We will barbecue because we off. But Black people ― nobody Black I know is really excited about the Fourth of July cause it is what Frederick Douglass said it is. It is the celebration of slaveholders who freed themselves from having to pay taxes to the Crown for their slave empire."
Douglass's Speech and Historical Context
Wagner had earlier played an excerpt from Douglass's speech: "Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. ... The Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice. I must mourn." Reid continued: "For Black people, particularly for African Americans, there's a duality to Fourth of July that is hard to reconcile if you think about it too much. Juneteenth to me is the real thing that Fourth of July is because we really were not a democracy until we ended slavery. And then we were really not a democracy until the people who lost the Civil War were finally forced to affirm and act upon the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments." These Reconstruction amendments ended slavery and established civil rights.
Conservative Backlash
Reid's comments triggered extreme reactions from conservatives, who accused her of hating America, called her ignorant, and accused her of embracing fake victimhood. Some also labeled her as racist. The controversy highlights ongoing debates about the meaning of Independence Day for Black Americans.
