Democrat Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania used Monday’s Juneteenth holiday to virtue-signal on race.
Twitter users, however, were quick to note that Fetterman’s own record on race is far from spotless, at least by the standards of his fellow virtue-signalers.
First, Fetterman predictably tweeted the sort of rubbish we have come to expect on such occasions: “Happy Juneteenth! Today we celebrate emancipation + reflect on the long shadow of systemic racism in America. PA always stands by the unshakeable truth that Black families matter + Black lives matter.”
Happy Juneteenth! Today we celebrate emancipation + reflect on the long shadow of systemic racism in America.
PA always stands by the unshakeable truth that Black families matter + Black lives matter. pic.twitter.com/sD4gaziCJZ
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 19, 2023
Alas, Fetterman has not always demonstrated such exquisite racial sensibilities.
In 2013, while serving as mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, Fetterman pulled a shotgun on a black jogger.
TribLive reported at the time that Mayor Fetterman believed he heard gunshots, followed the jogger in his truck, then pulled a shotgun, though Fetterman claimed that he never pointed the gun directly at the innocent black man.
Yesterday, Twitter users reminded Fetterman of the 2013 incident.
Steve Guest, former Special Communications Adviser to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, tweeted a relevant old headline from the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Everything to know about the 2013 John Fetterman jogger incident. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman pursued a man in 2013 and pulled a shotgun on him because he wrongly believed the Black jogger had been involved in a shooting.”
REMINDER: pic.twitter.com/hGjS6zo6oL
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 19, 2023
Another Twitter user noted the irony: “Remember when [you] pulled a shotgun on an unarmed black man in a clear case of racial profiling?”
Remember when pulled a shotgun on an unarmed black man in a clear case of racial profiling?
— Biden’s chief document inspector ? (@FightOn4America) June 19, 2023
There are two related elements to this story of virtue-signaling hypocrisy.
First, there is the phony holiday.
I hold a Ph.D. in history. In more than two decades of reading, writing, teaching and general engagement with the subject, I never once came across a reference to Juneteenth.
Personal familiarity, of course, does not mean everything. Nor does flashing credentials. History is a vast subject. The volume of what I know about the past pales in comparison to the scope of my ignorance.
Nonetheless, if an event in U.S. history is worthy of elevation to the status of a national holiday, would it not stand to reason that a former professor of U.S. history at least should have heard of it?
Juneteenth might be a memorable occasion to the descendants of those who experienced slavery in one part of the country, but that is not why it became a holiday.
Juneteenth was the ruling class’s response to the death of George Floyd and the 2020 BLM riots. It gave the elites an annual platform from which to proclaim their moral excellence while helping absolutely no one.
Second, there is Fetterman’s continued place of honor inside that same ruling class.
The only difference between the 2013 Fetterman incident and the 2020 death of Ahmaud Arbery is that Fetterman’s innocent black jogger survived the encounter.
Whether or not Fetterman deserves criticism for the incident is irrelevant. In stopping an innocent black man at gunpoint, Fetterman acted as a racial-profiling vigilante. Had Fetterman helped seize an actual criminal, however, the then-mayor might have been hailed as a hero.
For present purposes, what matters is that Fetterman retains his standing with the establishment, not because of his actual record on race, but because of his party affiliation.
The same holds true for President Joe Biden, whose segregationist history the establishment media dutifully ignores.
It is not the celebration of emancipation that should trouble us. That would be well worth celebrating on any one of a handful of other and more appropriate dates.
What troubles us is the platform Juneteenth affords to preening hypocrites like Fetterman.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
