Joy Reid dismissed the significance of the 4th of July in her recent podcast episode titled "Why Juneteenth Is the Real Independence Day," which featured Alex Wagner, a correspondent at MSNBC. Reid was fired from MSNBC last February, prompting a switch to independent media and podcasting.
Joy Reid: Juneteenth is the "real" Independence Day.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 22, 2026
"Juneteenth to me is the real thing that the 4th of July is."
Loathes the country. Absolutely loathes it. https://t.co/NL86Pm8H3i pic.twitter.com/wyfGyXl8CC
Reid proclaimed that black people feel about the Fourth of July how Indigenous people feel about Thanksgiving, saying, "Juneteenth, to me, is the real thing that Fourth of July is, because we really weren't a democracy until we ended slavery."
She lamented the Fourth as a celebration of "slaveholders who freed themselves from having to pay taxes to the Crown for their slave empire."
Joy Reid: “Nobody black I know is really excited about the 4th of July."
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 21, 2026
“It is the celebration of slaveholders who freed themselves from having to pay taxes to the Crown for their slave empire."
Reid was considered a 'mainstream media’ personality for years. pic.twitter.com/XCjHc82Tt6
The obvious reality is that without the independence that the founders fought to secure, our country would never have been positioned to outlaw slavery in the first place. Juneteenth as a holiday, however, tries to segregate independence and diminish the meaning of the Fourth of July. It does nothing but deepen political and racial divides and falsely claims that America is inherently evil and racist.
Further, the Founders knew that the Constitution paved the way for abolition—they established a union founded on the key principle of liberty, and to do so, they needed to concede, for a time, to slave owners who would reject a version of the Constitution that prohibited slavery. This excerpt from an essay featured in the Bill of Rights Foundation says it best:
The Framers made a prudential compromise with slavery because they sought to achieve their highest goal of a stronger Union of republican self-government. Since some slaveholding delegations threatened to walk out of the Constitution if slavery was threatened, there was a real possibility that there would have been separate free and slave confederacies instead of the United States. The free states would have lost all leverage over the slave states to end slavery if they had separated. The Framers had to create the Union with the institution of slavery but built a regime of liberty that they hoped would lead to slavery’s ultimate extinction.
So, Joy, maybe this Independence Day, you can take the time to better understand the history that gave you the ability to live and speak freely, to get on a podcast microphone as a Black woman and share any opinions you desire, no matter how wrong or backward they may be. Maybe show a bit of appreciation for the country that allowed you to make a name and a living out of hating it.