Why You'll Not Hear Me Say Happy Independence Day
"To a slave," Frederick Douglass once said, "Independence Day is a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
When I was a kid back in Brooklyn, the Fourth of July meant barbecues and picnics at Prospect Park or at Brighton or Riis beaches, hot dogs, hamburgers, frisbees, footballs, family, fireworks, more food, more family, sparklers, firecrackers, bottle rockets...you get the picture. I looked forward to it every year like Christmas. It was THE summer holiday!
The other part of the Fourth of July, that crap about the flag and the declaration of independence, though, I couldn’t care less. Neither I nor anyone I knew of any age had a patriotic bone in their body. Not even the veterans. If there was something decorated with a flag, it was solely because it was on sale, Independence Day beer and paper plates, or Fourth of July hotdog rolls, and represented savings — more money for food and gas and other necessities. Not freedom. Never that.
It was later in life that I realized that we were seriously supposed to be celebrating America's birthday, liberty, and independence from the yoke of European tyranny. Even as a kid, I struggled with this concept because, to my parents and my teachers at the time, the only tyrants were white people. And not the royalty that yoked rich landlords and slaveowners from abroad a couple of hundred years ago, but the ones that have been terrorizing, brutalizing, and lynching their husbands, wives, kids, and kin in America and doing so since before the nation was conceived.
What I'm saying is that I'm an American who has never properly celebrated the 4th of July, Independence Day (or whatever you wanna call it), and the way it's looking, I never will.
American history actually has a version that deserves a big birthday party every year, but unfortunately, many nonwhites in America do not live lives that allow them to delude themselves enough to believe America is worthy of being celebrated. We can go through the motions but we just can't bring ourselves to fully embrace that artifice, that version of the American fairytale, without embracing its conceit--that we are worthless, meaningless footnotes in American history. And though many history books would reinforce that notion, we KNOW that is NOT the case; in our hearts and minds and bones and DNA, we KNOW!
We live in the other America, the real America. In real America, a true Independence Day can not occur until ALL Americans are free, not just the fair-skinned ones!
Depending on your perception of what took place in the US after 7/4/1776, the year and day of America's true independence vary.
Some say it was 6/19/1865, known as Juneteenth, the day the last enslaved people had their shackles removed.
Some say it was the day the 13th Amendment was ratified on 12/6/1865.
Some say it was when the Civil Rights Bill passed on 7/2/1964 (for how can you count yourself among the free when the government that allegedly freed you also sanctions your subjugation by those defeated in a Civil War it fought to free you? Untie that knot.)
Some say it was when the Voting Rights Bill was passed on 8/6/1965 (for how can you count yourself among the free when you're disenfranchised and even if you could vote, your choice would be the lesser of the prevailing evils because in one way or another they all devalue your humanity?)
Some are of the mind that it hasn't happened yet, that we can not cry freedom while America remains delusional enough to expect anyone to take the 4th of July seriously, black or white.
I'm of that mind, by the way.
America has some serious atoning to do, and celebrating the 4th of July without acknowledging that it's fictitious is a poor way to go about it. It signals to all of us whose ancestors lived the non-fiction and did not attain independence from white tyranny that day, that our experience, our truth, our lives don't matter.
I can't help but feel that the country is hoping we will be pacified, for example, by Biden's overtures to reparations for 400+ years of slavery and exploitation, disenfranchisement, and genocide (meanwhile, he's signing bills to increase police funding despite our protestation, ignoring our cries!)
I want to give him a chance, but it seems he's hoping we will forget the strides we were beginning to make during the BLM protests. I sincerely hope he is wrong.
There is still a lot that needs to be done. Getting back to normal, to the status quo, should not be a priority for anyone, least of all the leader of the country...because normal in America is intolerable for most non-white Americans.
The Fourth of July is yet another monument that needs to be torn down and dismantled for the same reasons that Robert E. Lee's statues needed it.
The Fourth of July does not have a Mason/Dixon line. This version of history is canon north and south—a national delusion! And it needs to be decanonized.
America can't afford to continue to be reverential to obvious falsehoods.
Once we acknowledge that it is a fabrication, we may be able to refurbish it (if we're determined to save it.) We can make it a day not of celebration but a day where Americans consider how to rectify all the havoc caused by celebrating its independence 100s of years before a significant portion of the population could enjoy independence. Make sure everyone understands how an entire nation can unite to celebrate bullshit and why.
A national conversation to discuss how, moving forward, we can assure that Americans celebrate something real, something inclusive, something representative of what America has always touted, something that establishes justice and ensures domestic tranquility, something true to these so-called American values, to inspire America to live up to its credo. To truly be what it proclaims.
If that's what the 4th of July becomes about, then you can count me in! Til then, it's just a mockery, an affront to those who are fighting to make our lives and the lives of our ancestors matter! It's offensive as hell, feeds hostilities, and while it may not be the straw that broke the camel's back, make no mistake about it, it is a straw!
"To a slave," Frederick Douglass once said, "Independence Day is a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”