What to the OPPRESSED is YOUR Fourth of July?
Adapted from Frederick Douglass’ July 5th, 1852 speech “What to the (en)slave(d) is the Fourth of July?”
Fellow citizens, I will not be long before you to dwell about my rage and discontent associated with this 250th celebration. The simple story of it is that, 250 +years ago, the people of this country were British subjects. This version of America that they sing of was not yet born. They were under the British crown. Their forefathers, and ours, had not yet adopted the fashionable idea that is this day, of the performance of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts, presumed to differ from the home government in respect to the wisdom and the justice of some of those burdens and restraints.
At that time, they went so far into their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and OPPRESSIVE, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. Let me be clear, I fully agree with my brother’s assessment regarding their direct rejection of the oppressive regime that was their British rule. In that same breath, I also reject the oppression that America created and still upholds for my people, or any people who were not gifted the privilege of whiteness. I reject any such subjugation with the fire of the rage that burns within me. A fire too deep to contain and yet too dangerous to release.
They themselves felt harshly and unjustly treated by the home government, your forefathers, like men of honesty, and men of spirit, earnestly sought redress. They begged, pleaded, petitioned, and demonstrated; they did so in in a decorous, respectful, and perceivably loyal manner. Their conduct was wholly unexceptionable. This, much like today, did not move the needle; it did not serve its purpose. They, much like us, saw themselves treated with sovereign indifference, coldness, ridicule, rejection, and scorn.
Citizens, your forefathers made good that resolution [for independence]. They succeeded; and today you reap the fruit of that success. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary. The fourth of July is YOUR first great fact in this nation’s history — the very ring bolt in the chain of this overly-saturated yet unmerciful destiny.
Ego, misplaced pride, and YOUR version of patriotism, much less any true version of gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. The Declaration of Independence is indeed the ring-bolt to the chain of this nation’s destiny, what could be, what might have been; so many like Frederick Douglass, regarded it. The principles contained in that instrument were considered saving principles. You were encouraged in 1852 to stand by those principles, to be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
To the point of the matter at hand, I, nor my liberated people are included within the pale of this [allegedly] glorious anniversary! Your performatively high independence, your raised confederate flags, your Sieg Heil, your marching masked Nazis, your ICE bandits, and your red hats only reveal the immeasurable distance between us. This blessing in which you, this day rejoice, are not enjoyed in common by sensible folks. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your forefathers, is shared by you, not me. The sunlight that worked to bring life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You might rejoice, I will resist!
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Fellow-citizens; above your national tumultuous joy, your donning of your reds, whites, and blues, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Whose chains, physical and metaphorical, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them via social media, text message, or media outlets. If I do forget, If I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow on this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!”, as Douglass stated. It is an offense to forget them, to celebrate this version of America, to rejoice in the spirit of fascism, irreparable harm, anti-Blackness, misogynoir, anti-LGBTQIA, and anti-immigrant sentiment, I dare not! The cost of paying that tax to my soul is far too great a burden to carry. My subject, then fellow-citizens, is AMERICAN FASCISM.
I shall see, this day, and its popular characteristics, from the oppressed’ point of view. Standing, there identified with the American oppressor, making their wrongs mine I will never hesitate to declare, with all my soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked more abysmal to me than on this current Fourth of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of this nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is a hypocrite to its British predecessor, a phony to its present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.
Standing with the creator and the crushed and bleeding oppressed members on this occasion, I will, in the name of true humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution, stare decisis and the law, which in this administration are constantly disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate any form of oppression — like enslavement—the greatest unrepented sin and shame of America! I will not equivocate nor will I ever excuse! I will always use the most severe language I can command; and yet not one word will escape me that any person, whose judgement is not blinded by bigotry, or whose heart is not the heart of the oppressor, shall not agree fervently that my words are right and just.
At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed! If I were granted the ability, and I could reach the nation’s ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting yet necessary ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light, or the performance of it that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation MUST be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against the creator and humanity must be proclaimed and denounced.
What, to the OPPRESSED, is YOUR Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to them more than all days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which they are the constant victim. To them, your celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness; swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants while marching in lockstep with known white supremacists, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnly, are, to them mere bombast fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy, — a thin veil to cover up crimes of genocide and pedophilia which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on this earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these [un]United States, at this very hour.
You invite to these shores [alleged] white and white adjacent fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but those who you oppress on your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot, and kill. Your glory in your refinement and your universal education yet you maintain a system as dreadful and barbaric as ever continues to stain the character of this nation — a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty.
You audaciously declare before the world, and are understood by the world to wrongfully declare, that you allegedly believe the following: “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” however, you hold securely a bondage which, according to your own rapist president Thomas Jefferson, “is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose,” a seventh part of the citizens of your own country.
Let it be said in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture on this day that I felt compelled to present of the actual state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must through their duty work toward upending the existence of oppression and modern day enslavement. As such, I am leaving off like I began and Bro. Douglass before me, with hope. While drawing encouragement from liberators, intersectional feminists scholars, radical critical thinkers, and futuristic Afrocentrism that says, in the end we will still be here AND we will be free!
