What To The [Slave] Is The Fourth Of July ... in 2020?
If you wish me a “happy holiday” this weekend , know that you’ve committed a microaggression.
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass gave an address to a group of Karens, the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, and his words continue to ring true more than 150 years later. The address is well-worth the read, but I’m fully aware that 95% of the people who are reading this piece won’t take the time to read that piece; allat being said, I’ll bring attention to one quote from his address that informs my brief remarks on today.
Bro. Douglass said, “This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn."
First of all, that brotha knew how to put some words together!! Those two sentences were incredibly well-structured and the structure creates some amazing opportunity for a deeper reading.
But beyond the mechanics of the sentences is a social and political—sociopolitical if you will—suggestion that continues to assert itself 246 years after the first of these days was celebrated by the patriots of this prison formally known the United States Of America but eternally experienced as the “Divided States of America”, in the words of the Kings that don’t run from adversity. And that suggestion, which I would suggest is a statistically significant fact, is that while injustice anywhere might be a threat to justice everywhere, justice for one does not necessitate justice for all. Douglass is articulating with great clarity that this cookout ain’t for me and mine, good buddy. The “cookout” being the 18th and 19th century festivities that likely included the hanging of strange fruit from poplar trees and “good buddy” being the 21st century fireworks fans who are complicit in allowing the illumination of the sky distract to their peers from the sound of gunshots that ring of injustice upon black and brown bodies.
Douglass has made it clear that to a slave, which (century after century) is the systematized social class of Black folks in this nation, this “holiday” is not “holy” for those of the same hue as him. Douglass is also suggesting that the idea of this day being used to celebrate a statement of liberation, when that liberation came at the expense of many people’s life and liberty and pursuit of happiness, is ludacris. While white folks were singing the national anthem of immorality and the star spangled banner of white supremacy, black folks were listening to the sounds of their shackles as as they sang spirituals that helped them escape from the hell on earth that was chattel slavery, this country’s original sin.
I bring attention to this quality quote by Douglass because I believe his suggestion deserves affirmation, even now. Black folks ain’t speaking to Anti-slavery societies anymore, but there are a lot of “allies” out there always asking Black folks to teach them something. The Emancipation Proclamation may have been signed in 1863, but we know that in the 21st century, slavery still exists in the form of mass incarceration. Douglass’ deep dive into the implications of this UNholyday speaks truth to power for our present moment. A day of independence for some is really an annual assembly that serves as a reminder of the institutionalization of systematic racism for those f the same hue as me and you.
In the words of my oratorical mentor, Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, “A text without context is merely a pretext for conning people.” This quote is so meaningful in this moment because we might believe that these times, defined by overt white supremacy via police brutality and immeasurable incompetency in the House that’s as White as the man destroying it, are unprecedented. When in fact, we must remember that this moment has happened before, and Douglass described it. He lived through that moment, told the story, and now we can read it today.
Our words have power. And our stories are powerFULL because they are FILLed with our words. To the question, “What to a [Slave] is the Fourth of July in 2020?” I respond by repeating the same words Frederick Douglass spoke in 1852.
I CHARGE YOU to leverage the power in your story, even when it gets gory, because it leads to profit surely. And that profit is a kind of holistic cents that is informed by a holistic sense. Remember, we must make it make sense, so we can make cents and SENSational impact all across the CENSus. We are who we need in moments like these, y’all. I don’t know if this day will ever mean anything different to those who currently call it a holiday, but I do know it doesn’t have to mean the same thing to us. We are in the midst of the Second Reconstruction and this moment in herstory allows us an incredible opportunity to create new narratives that our great great great grandchildren will read and mobilize around, just like we are using this address by Frederick Douglass. Let’s be the change our great great great grandchildren will need, just as we are our ancestor’s wildest dreams.
