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By James Crump
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Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush as racist on Sunday evening, after the latter tweeted that "Black people still aren't free," amid July 4 celebrations.
On Sunday afternoon, as Independence Day was being celebrated across the U.S, Bush criticized the event on Twitter.
"When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they're referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and Black people still aren't free," wrote the Democratic lawmaker.
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In a follow-up tweet, Bush, a prominent supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, wrote: "We know what our own freedom looks like. End the slavery permitted under the 13th amendment.
"End the War on Drugs. End police violence. End health care, housing, and education apartheid. WE are the experts on our own liberation. And we won't stop until it's won."
Greene, a high-profile Republican who has publicly supported former President Donald Trump, responded to Bush's original tweet about July 4, writing: "Says a black woman, who is one of only 435 people in all of America currently elected to serve in Congress.
"You can stop with the racism now Cori and put your race card back in your pocket. 4th of July is freedom for all from a tyrannical government. Happy Independence Day!"
Bush has, at time of writing, not yet publicly responded to Greene's tweet, but the pair have clashed before. The former moved her office away from the latter in January "for my team's safety" after she said she was berated by the Georgia representative in a shared hallway.
Democratic congressional candidate Shahid Buttar replied to Bush on Sunday, writing: "Speak it, @CoriBush! It's almost as if our entire country has been brainwashed to ignore our history—and how its worst elements continue today—despite our self-congratulatory rhetoric."
Other activists, lawmakers and pundits posted similar thoughts about Independence Day on Sunday, citing that slavery was still legal in the U.S. on the celebrated date, July 4, 1776.
Democratic California Representative Maxine Waters, the House Financial Services Committee chair wrote: "July 4th... & so, the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. Equal to what? What men?
"Only white men? Isn't it something that they wrote this in 1776 when African Americans were enslaved? They weren't thinking about us then, but we're thinking about us now!"
Former MSNBC host Touré tweeted: "F**k Independence Day. Not only were we not free, the whole reason the Colonies wanted independence was because Britain was moving toward abolishing slavery.
"Why would Black people celebrate a day so wrapped up in our enslavement?" he said. He also shared an op-ed written by him for theGrio, in which he said the event "wasn't Independence Day for Black people."
Touré wrote that the newly designated holiday, Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of African American slaves, casts a "long shadow over Independence Day, making it look like a hypocrite and a damn fool."
He said his criticism of the Declaration was not only because Americans still owned slaves at the time of independence, but because slavery "was completely wrapped up in the movement to become independent."
"America wanted to protect its cash cow and, even more, it was wealth derived from slavery that allowed the colonies to afford to pay for the War of Independence," Touré wrote.
"The founding of this country is intertwined with slavery. Why would we celebrate that?"
Newsweek has contacted Greene and Bush for comment.
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