What’s the 4th of July to Black Americans?
In case you’re unaware, many Black Americans don’t celebrate the 4th of July, because on July 4, 1776, Black people were still property.
We celebrate Juneteeth (on June 19th), because it’s the day all enslaved people were finally set free [in Texas].
Growing up as an impressionable child, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every day made me feel like being American was the prize to some arbitrary contest.
And then you grow up and start to unlearn and educate yourself.
Long story short, we know too much now.
Therefore, our celebration is nuanced.
And before you tell me to go back to Africa, understand that you can love a country and still want to hold it to a higher standard.
In fact, it’s the people in your life that cared for you the most that disciplined you the hardest (i.e. parents, elders, teachers)
You can only pacify a nation with blind allegiance for so long. Thanks to the internet, everyone has access to the truth.
To view this day as only a celebration requires a level of complicity to past and current transgressions.
Many label themselves a patriot, which means devoted love, support, and unity with one’s country.
Others take it a step further and call themselves a nationalist — unwavering loyalty and feelings of superiority over other countries.
Patriotism is loving your country for what it’s become.
Nationalism is loving your country no matter what it becomes.
For obvious reasons, I can’t subscribe to either.
But I recognize that freedom ain’t free, and American [passport] privilege is real.
Some Americans experience the full range of what this country’s constitution promised — others are still fighting for it.
So while this day is nuanced, I’m still deeply grateful for the privilege to live in a country where even publishing a post like this won’t land me in jail.
And while the 4th of July doesn’t have to carry the same meaning for all of us, I hope in your celebration you remember:
- Native Americans were here first
- The tens of millions of dollars from free African labor that enslaved Black descendants will never see
- To YouTube the speech by Frederick Douglass “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.”
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