- Mar 11, 2015
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I borrowed this phrase from a friend. I did so because this day is not independence day for everyone. July fourth is fake news for blacks, women, Native Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. June 19 and July 2 are my Independence Days.
“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him 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 shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
www.thenation.com
Frederick Douglass joined the new Republican party when it was founded. Today, there are right wingers who will proudly declare how Frederick Douglass was a black Republican. And they will use him as an example to blacks in order to try getting us to joining the modern Republican party. But you see, there is a problem with this.
Do you think Byron Donalds would stand up in front of a crowd of whites today telling them how American racism is antithetical to the belief of individual liberty? How about Tim Scott? Ben Carson?
The answer is no.
Great black republicans of the past such as Douglass would have some choice words for some of our modern black republicans.
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him 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 shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.”
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass
This is the perfect time to read the entirety of Frederick Douglass’s famous speech, and not merely because of the date on the calendar.
www.thenation.com
Frederick Douglass joined the new Republican party when it was founded. Today, there are right wingers who will proudly declare how Frederick Douglass was a black Republican. And they will use him as an example to blacks in order to try getting us to joining the modern Republican party. But you see, there is a problem with this.
Do you think Byron Donalds would stand up in front of a crowd of whites today telling them how American racism is antithetical to the belief of individual liberty? How about Tim Scott? Ben Carson?
The answer is no.
Great black republicans of the past such as Douglass would have some choice words for some of our modern black republicans.
