Dependence and independence
9th June 2014 · 0 Comments
In a couple of weeks, Americans will celebrate the nation’s 238th birthday. For many, the July 4th observance took on added significance in the years since 2001’s terrorist attacks in NYC and the so-called war on terrorism. But for some, the Fourth of July is a glaring example of the disparity between the realities of living in America and what this nation professes to be.
For Africans in America, Fourth of July celebrations have always been tempered with sobering reflection and debate which is understandable given the nation’s historical and ongoing treatment and mistreatment of people of color. While Africans in America honor the United States as the land where so many of our ancestors fought, bled and died for freedom, we know that it is also the land that has exacted a steep price from people of color for the “privilege” of remaining in this nation. After all, the independence so enthusiastically celebrated annually on July 4 has come at the expense of Black, red, brown and yellow peoples, both here and abroad.
In that spirit, I have to ask: Do you know where your shackles are?
While Black people have demonstrated an unwavering loyalty to and love for this nation, it is a love that has been for the most part unrequited. We have gone to war after war after war to prove our love and loyalty to this nation, only to return to bigotry, scorn, discrimination and racial violence at the hands of our white countrymen.
No matter how you slice it, the reality is that the Fourth of July isn’t half as significant for Africans in America as it is for the Europeans who call America home.
That doesn’t mean we’re any less patriotic. Just that our experience in this land has been dramatically different than that of white Americans. There is a Reality Divide that separates the races and illustrates just how different our experiences have been from that of the mainstream. America, to many whites, is baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, fireworks, and patriotic songs that stir emotion. For Africans, America is the land that held us captive for centuries, methodically broke up our families, raped our women, destroyed our cultural roots and violently ripped us out of our history. It is the nation that dragged us kicking and screaming across the Atlantic Ocean.
Over the course of this nation’s history, we have repeatedly heard that the majority rules. Since for the greater part of this nation’s relatively short history the majority has been European, that hasn’t been much of a cause for concern for the larger society. But as we roll on in the 21st century and see the populations of brown, black, red and yellow peoples increase while the number of white Americans subsides, it will be interesting to see how this unchallenged rule plays out.
In the years since George W. Bush won a questionable presidential race and President Barack Obama was elected to the highest office in the land, we have already begun to see the illusion of “fair elections” starting to unravel.
As many have pointed out, the golden rule in the Western Hemisphere has long been that he who owns the gold makes all the rules. Napoleon once said that “history is a fable agreed upon.” Agreed upon by the rich and powerful. While some episodes may be irretrievably lost to us, you can be fairly certain that the men writing the history of this nation for prosperity lost very little sleep over the fact that women and people of color were intentionally written out of American history. It was as if we never existed or never contributed anything of merit to this society.
We, of course, know better.
When mainstream historians talk about how the West was won, seldom do they give the legendary Buffalo Soldiers the credit these courageous and selfless warriors so richly deserve. Nor do we hear enough about the scorn, discrimination and ridicule Black soldiers endured for daring to serve in the United States Armed Forces in the 20th century.
Some of us have made the mistake of thinking that if we get enough money, education and professional success everything will be alright. But these goals, however laudable, cannot completely shield us from the scourge of bigotry, racial enmity and oppression. Every now and then, racism rears its ugly head and reminds us of our “place” in the world.
Besides, we are not discriminated against, racially profiled and despised because we come from the wrong side of the tracks, are undereducated or have thick lips, nappy hair, rhythm and a sense of style second to none. No, we’re a threat to the United States and its reputation in the global community because of who we are, what we know and the fact that we are constant reminder of America’s past transgressions.
More than two centuries after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this nation is still not prepared to own up to past mistakes and missteps.
We need not be bashful or apologetic about telling our own story, in our own words and from our own unique perspective.
On July 5, 1852, a decade before the Civil War, abolitionist Frederick Doug?lass delivered an address titled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” in which he pointed out the “hollow mockery” of Europeans celebrating their freedom in America while continuing to deny Africans of their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. An excerpt follows:
“You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three million of your countrymen… You invite to your shores 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 the fugitives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill. You glory in your refinement and your universal education; yet you maintain a system as barbarous and dreadful as ever stained the character of a nation-—a system begun in avarice, supported in pride, and perpetuated in cruelty…
“…The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a byword to a mocking earth…It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. Oh! be warned! be warned! a horrible reptile is coiled up in your nation’s bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty million crush and destroy it forever!”
Make no mistake about it, this is a great country. But from the very beginning a conscious effort was made to conceal the pivotal role Blacks played in making American inhabitable and a global force to be reckoned with. America could be so much better if it could ever find a way to put aside the hatred, treachery, parsimony, duplicity and inequities of the past, if this nation could somehow find a way to get past skin color. America could be so much better if it could move beyond racial tolerance (who wants to be merely tolerated?) and into a realm of interracial understanding, intercultural exchange and cooperation. This nation could be so much better if all of its inhabitants could only commit to walking the path of righteousness together as equal members of the human family.
There are those in America who repeatedly try to convince us that it is unpatriotic — if not blasphemous — for Africans in America to criticize the United States for its laundry list of injustices and inequities. I disagree. It is precisely because Africans in America love this nation and see its tremendous potential that we feel compelled to challenge this nation to become all that it professes to be.
In my mind’s eye, that’s not only our God-given and constitutional right; that’s our duty as citizens of one of the greatest nations on the face of the earth.
We will continue to fight the fight our ancestors have fought for the right to be recognized as free human beings in this society until it is time for us to cross over to the Village of the Ancestors. Giving up is not an option.
Harambee.
This article originally published in the June 9, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
