As I wrote last Friday, New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay took issue with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) after the Senator gave former NFL QB-turned-social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick a brief history lesson on the words of abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass.

As it turns out, New York City Councilman Justin Brannan (D) had something to say about Cruz’s history lesson, too. We’ll get to that in just a minute.

To recap, on July 4th Kaepernick quoted a portion of Douglass’s July 5, 1852 speech about Independence Day:

“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? This Fourth of July is yours, not mine…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
– Frederick Douglass pic.twitter.com/IWLujGCJHn

— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) July 4, 2019

Sen. Cruz saw the Douglass quote and who posted it, and decided to add some much-needed context. After noting the quote Kaepernick used didn’t give an complete picture of Douglass’s views on America, Cruz spent one tweet providing some background on the speech, and then sent several tweets quoting directly from the speech. He concluded by encouraging everyone to read the full speech in context.

Gay, who is a Kaepernick fan, tweeted to Cruz the next day by saying “Frederick Douglass is an American hero, and his name has no business in your mouth.” But once Cruz clapped back, Gay backed down a bit and they made their peace.

In the middle of all of this, Brannan gave his .02 worth in response to Gay’s original tweet:

Ted Cruz should not be "clarifying" Frederick Douglass.

— Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) July 5, 2019

Cruz saw Brannan’s swipe, and was not having it:

I know for NYC elected Dems words can lack “meaning,” but directly quoting at length is not “clarifying” (nor is linking to the entire brilliant speech). But selectively quoting Douglass to make him seem like a modern America-hating Leftist is, well, the opposite of “clarifying.” https://t.co/uUtcmU686v

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 5, 2019

Boom.

Brannan responded back by telling Sen. Cruz that if he was such an expert on Douglass and his views on slavery, he would support a reparations bill introduced by 2020 presidential candidate and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) back in April:

Being that you are such a distinguished scholar of Frederick Douglass, I trust that you will support S.1083 which would study the impact of slavery and continuing discrimination against African-Americans. Good to hear!

— Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) July 5, 2019

Here’s a better idea: Brannan and his fellow Democrats should take NFL legend Burgess Owens’s advice and pay out the reparations themselves. As Owens said at the House reparations hearing last month:

“I do believe in restitution,” he continued. “Let’s point to the party that was part of slavery, KKK, Jim Crow, that has killed over 40% of our black babies, 20 million of them.”

“State of California, 75 percent of our black boys can’t pass a standard reading and writing test. A Democratic state. So yes, let’s pay restitution. How about a Democratic Party pay for all the misery brought to my race and those — after we learn our history — who decide to stay there, they should pay also.”

Brannan later retweeted comments from David Lobl, a former special assistant to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D):

Post shabbos twitter. Seeing that @tedcruz retweeted @JustinBrannan. They don’t know this in Texas but you can’t school JB.

— Heem 😄 (@ScamG0at) July 7, 2019

Except that’s exactly what Cruz did.

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –