Tuesday on MSNBC “Velshi & Ruhle,” discussing White House chief of staff John Kelly’s comments on Fox News about Confederate monuments, host of “News One Now” Roland Martin said “too many people in this country who are white” didn’t know history and wanted to “somehow glorify these Confederate leaders.”
Martin said, “I’m not going to allow four stars stuck on stupid to simply go on. Here’s a man who’s utterly clueless. For him to say, ‘Well, we could have compromised’—really? We did compromise. It was a thing called United States Constitution, and you know what that said? If you’re a black, you’re three-fifths of a human.”
He continued, ”I need John Kelly to actually go back and read a history book that my 12-year-old nieces are reading right now, because clearly, he fell asleep in history.”
“This is how we normalize white supremacy. Then to say, well, we don’t have an appreciation of history. I love this whole deal about how, you know, he was an honorable man. Really? There were abolitionists during that particular period who did not believe in slavery. Don’t call them men of their time.”
He added, “We have too many people in this country who are white who do not know history and who want to somehow glorify these Confederate leaders. I’m telling you right now, they ain’t my founding fathers, and they’re not my leaders. We need to have real history. Not his story. And I will say to John Kelly, shame on you. And also, you owe Congresswoman Wilson an apology for lying. Don’t you talk about honor and sacred and how we treat women when you lied to the American people, and you’re not man enough to admit it.”
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