{"id":566,"date":"2025-07-06T19:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T19:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=566"},"modified":"2025-07-06T19:59:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T19:59:54","slug":"independence-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=566","title":{"rendered":"Independence (Day)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

Two things changed that.
Knocked that patriotism shit right out of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first happened pre-pandemic<\/em>.
(It\u2019s funny how we\u2019ve started measuring time like that\u2014pre- and post-pandemic.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201csafe Negro,\u201d one of \u201cthe good ones.\u201d It wasn\u2019t uncommon to be the only Black person in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was walking toward a group of white men\u2014cocktails and khakis\u2014huddled in laughter. I couldn\u2019t hear what they were saying at first, but I caught the punchline as I got closer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNigger.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They looked up and saw me. Every last one of them scattered like roaches when the lights come on\u2014except the one who told the joke. He stood there, fumbling through some weak-ass apology, then extended his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this day, I\u2019m still mad I shook it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second moment came post-pandemic<\/em>, in 2022, when I heard an excerpt from Frederick Douglass\u2019 speech,
\u201cWhat to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?\u201d<\/strong>

https:\/\/youtu.be\/iZDcB1NhMfo<\/a>
Originally delivered by Douglass on July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York\u2014Douglass laid bare the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom while millions remained enslaved <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I later listened to the full speech\u2014173 years old\u2014delivered with thunder and clarity by James Earl Jones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A speech written in 1852, during a time so many flag-waving patriots claim to long for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now here we are again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, the current administration wants to modernize slavery under a MAGA framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of plantations, we call them farms.
Instead of enslaved Africans, it\u2019s immigrants\u2014brown bodies, exploited for profit, told they can stay but never belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president says they can live here and pay taxes\u2014but never become citizens.
Sound familiar, America?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a \u201cfarmer\u201d doesn\u2019t like a worker\u2019s productivity, they can threaten deportation.
Family separation? Authorized.
Abuse? Inevitable.
Deaths? Expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the farmers\u2014just like the enslavers of old\u2014will be protected by qualified immunity<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have to realize, what is a form of slavery<\/em>
Organized under a swarm of devils<\/em> Straight up, word ’em up on the level<\/em>
The reasons are several, most of them federal<\/em> <\/strong>
\u2014 N.W.A., \u201cBlack Steel in the Hour of Chaos\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know your history.
Before they erase it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to say \u201cunskilled labor\u201d too\u2014
Talking about the people who harvest our food, stitch our clothes, and manufacture the products we rely on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll never use that phrase again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their labor is essential.
Their humanity, undeniable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frederick Douglass posed the question:
What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could swap \u201cslave\u201d for Black<\/em>, Hispanic<\/em>, or any shade of brown<\/em> today and still be asking the same question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So no, I no longer celebrate the Fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not when it belongs to white nationalists.
Not when it\u2019s embraced by people who would snatch independence from my people in a heartbeat.
Not when a nation that escaped oppression became one of history\u2019s greatest oppressors.
It\u2019s for those who took scientists, scholars, engineers, and healers\u2014and made them unskilled labor.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,3,14,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blackness","category-race","category-rants-and-raves","category-society"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}