Independence (Day)

I used to be a flag-waving, fireworks-shooting, parade-attending, cookout-going patriot on the 4th. Proud African American.

Two things changed that.
Knocked that patriotism shit right out of me.

The first happened pre-pandemic.
(It’s funny how we’ve started measuring time like that—pre- and post-pandemic.)

I was at an annual Fourth of July party thrown by a dear friend, deep inside an affluent gated community. Back then, I was still considered a “safe Negro,” one of “the good ones.” It wasn’t uncommon to be the only Black person in the room.

I was walking toward a group of white men—cocktails and khakis—huddled in laughter. I couldn’t hear what they were saying at first, but I caught the punchline as I got closer:

“Nigger.”

They looked up and saw me. Every last one of them scattered like roaches when the lights come on—except the one who told the joke. He stood there, fumbling through some weak-ass apology, then extended his hand.

To this day, I’m still mad I shook it.

The second moment came post-pandemic, in 2022, when I heard an excerpt from Frederick Douglass’ speech,
“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

https://youtu.be/iZDcB1NhMfo
Originally delivered by Douglass on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York—Douglass laid bare the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom while millions remained enslaved

I later listened to the full speech—173 years old—delivered with thunder and clarity by James Earl Jones.

A speech written in 1852, during a time so many flag-waving patriots claim to long for.

And now here we are again.

In 2025, the current administration wants to modernize slavery under a MAGA framework.

Instead of plantations, we call them farms.
Instead of enslaved Africans, it’s immigrants—brown bodies, exploited for profit, told they can stay but never belong.

The president says they can live here and pay taxes—but never become citizens.
Sound familiar, America?

If a “farmer” doesn’t like a worker’s productivity, they can threaten deportation.
Family separation? Authorized.
Abuse? Inevitable.
Deaths? Expected.

And the farmers—just like the enslavers of old—will be protected by qualified immunity.

You have to realize, what is a form of slavery
Organized under a swarm of devils Straight up, word ’em up on the level
The reasons are several, most of them federal
— N.W.A., “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”

Know your history.
Before they erase it.

I used to say “unskilled labor” too—
Talking about the people who harvest our food, stitch our clothes, and manufacture the products we rely on.

I’ll never use that phrase again.

Their labor is essential.
Their humanity, undeniable.

Frederick Douglass posed the question:
What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?

We could swap “slave” for Black, Hispanic, or any shade of brown today and still be asking the same question.

So no, I no longer celebrate the Fourth.

Not when it belongs to white nationalists.
Not when it’s embraced by people who would snatch independence from my people in a heartbeat.
Not when a nation that escaped oppression became one of history’s greatest oppressors.
It’s for those who took scientists, scholars, engineers, and healers—and made them unskilled labor.