When I was a kid, I loved the fourth of July. I loved the barbeques, the fireworks, and the parades. You see, in school, I learned the white-washed version of the fourth of July like everyone else. Now that I’m older and have intentionally sought to learn more about the real history of this country, I don’t feel the same excitement. In fact, my feelings are mixed.

 

Will my not celebrating July 4^th make me un-American? I suppose some could see it this way. But the more I learn and the more I witness what’s happening to the progress we’ve made towards freedom for Blacks in America, the more I’m seeing America for what it is at its core; a country run by the white, male, patriarchy willing to do anything to hold on to the power associated with being white in America.

 

Black people have a complicated relationship with the Fourth of July holiday.  White Americans celebrated their freedom of political expression while supporting the enslavement of Black people. In fact, Blacks weren’t even considered 100% human.

 

As Black communities used holidays like the Fourth of July to demonstrate their citizenship, they had to celebrate on July 5^th to avoid the violence shown to them when they celebrated on the same day as white Americans. White Americans insisted that the Fourth of July did not apply to Black Americans. The holiday didn’t represent their freedom and they were not people worthy of equal citizenship.

 

A 2018 article in The Atlantic states that in the 1800’s, whites resented their former slaves for turning the fourth into a celebration of Black liberty so much so that they moaned the fact that the holiday had become “a nigger day”. Eventually the 4^th of July became politically charged and white Democrats used those celebrations to reclaim their power through force of arms. Sound familiar?

 

On July 5^th, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave a lecture titled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”  Douglass said the existence of enslavement in the United States “brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie.”

 

So I have mixed feelings about the Fourth of July celebrations. Feelings of fun memories of my youth mixed with feelings of the reality of the history of Black Americans during the signing of the declaration of independence, and the fear of the America I live in today.

 

My ask is that you become aware of and sensitive to what this holiday means to the people of color in your life. Those of you who live with the safety of white-skin privilege, imagine this America from an entirely different perspective. A perspective of those Americans who could not celebrate their independence in 1776. A perspective of those who are still fighting to feel truly free from the oppression of the white, male, patriarchy.

 

Reply back to me to let me know what you are thinking or feeling as you read this. Does it make you angry with me? Are you able to see my perspective and have compassion? Were you fully aware that the freedom and the rights spoken of in the Declaration of Independence did not apply to everyone?

 

I'm curious as to your thoughts....