Conservative GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy feels a way about Juneteenth. Just two months after posting a video celebrating the holiday, Ramaswamy now feels Juneteenth is “useless,” NBC News reports.
During a conversation with voters in Iowa on Aug. 5, Ramaswamy suggested that the now-federal holiday should be moved in order to make room for something new – a national voting holiday.
“Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up,” he told applauding potential voters.
However, on Jun.19, he was singing a different tune with a video he posted on Twitter.
“We don’t just look back and flog ourselves,” Ramaswamy said.
“What we celebrate is how far we’ve come. And as a first-generation American myself, you better believe I’m proud of it. Happy Juneteenth everybody.”
Juneteenth is a new holiday so we still have a chance to define what it means to us. It needn’t be about grievance & self-flogging. Let it be a celebration of the American Dream itself. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/NyHfbJoAlw
In Ramaswamy’s eyes, the Juneteenth holiday is “redundant” and feels it overlaps with other holidays, like Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day.
“The reason for making it a holiday was under political duress,” Ramaswamy said.
‘It was a political hostage situation on the back of the death of George Floyd.”
Diversity has been a focal point for the presidential candidate during his campaign, calling for people to come together and recognize how similar they truly are, according to The Hill.
Fellow Republican presidential hopeful, Will Hurd (R-TX), slammed Ramaswamy’s cancellation remarks, saying the holiday represents “equality and freedom.”
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Source: Black Enterprise
