Thursday, July 3, 2008

Got to get free.... July 4th aka Independence Day


































So tomorrow will be another anniversary of Americas independence. Many of us will be at cookouts and parties all day never once really thinking about what the 4th of July really is. It was the birth of the most powerful democracy in modern times which happened to be built on slave labor. A democracy where many of our ancestors who were here, couldn't get away with even a percentage of the things we get away with today in society. As much as I love America and all it has done for me and my family, every forth of July I'm reminded of all the injustice this country has had over the years and still has now. For many people who look like me, the colors red, white, and blue reminds them more about police brutality and racial profiling then America or its flag. The blue is for the uniform of the cops that harass and treat them as second class citizens. The red is for the blood that spills out every time we are wrongfully shot, beat, or even killed because we fit some dumd ass profile. And the white you already know what that's stands for.

We all know the story of how the new Americans fought together to get freedom from England for self rule, But have have you ever stopped to look at the actual facts? They left England, came to another already inhabited land and took it as if it was never walked upon because of what ever they were facing in Europe. Killed the natives, stole some black folks to build and take care of the land , and established the most powerful nation in the world. Its ironic that the same freedom they were fighting for was the same freedom they helped European nations take away from African and South American civilizations. When America became free on July 4th 1776, people who had any resemblance to me were anything but free. Blacks would spend more then the next 90 years trying to be become free in America. Even with the end of slavery due to the civil war, blacks were far from equal to whites. Many people think that race was only a problem in the south but you would be highly mistaken. Segregation was just the next step in the master plan of America for blacks. They never intended for us to be here and if we had to stay, we were never to feel welcomed.

For many of us, we are still not free. Its one thing to be free and then it’s another to have freedom. A lot of us thing we are free (and in many aspects of life we are here in America) but we still do not have freedom. When I say freedom I mean it’s in the sense that many black folks have been in the same predicament as they were generations ago and don't have the freedom to change it. Living paycheck to paycheck just to pay on over due bills doesn’t seem like much freedom to me. Is there freedom of upward mobility???? For a few, but for most that is only a dream or wish which usually gets pasted to the next generation to try to achieve.

There are still two Americas in the country even if we don't want to believe it. So when you are out doing what ever you are doing tomorrow, take a second out and think about what America are you living in and are apart of.

This song by Trick Daddy.... Yesssss Trick Daddy, is one that expresses how it still is to be BLACK in America




3 comments:

DCtoBC.com said...

what a fucking post, dan.

preach to 'em, slim. now i have a newfound impression of july cuatro. and the trick daddy song is icing on the cake. one of the only songs that could have brought your post to LIFE. make sure people go back thru that joint and really READ what you were saying. some people still aren't free, and that's the truth. it took me until college to REALLY recognize it because i was at an institution where everybody, regardless of where you were in life, was treated pretty much equally. and since my parents are nigerian, i didn't get a chance to really feel the effects of things like the civil rights movement rub off on me like a lot of other parents do their kids.

crucial.

CCanndy21 said...

Yeah
i really enjoyed reading this post...i like how u connected the colors of the flag to what the colors Truly mean....
and to tie it all in, u had a video that everyone slept on but was one of the most critical video trick daddy ever did...
kudos koala

Anonymous said...

I feel u. I be saying the same thing, and ppl think Im just crazy when I tell them I dont celebrate the 4th of July, b/c its not ours to celebrate. We're supposed to celebrate Juneteenth, though most ppl dont even know what that is...
But funny u posted this b/c I posted on my fb notes a speech from Frederick Douglass that he gave when asked to speak for a july 5th occasion and he broke it down like u saying that he cant share in the celebration (of course slavery was still live and in living color at that time) but it still rings tru 2day.

U know what I think the problem wit ppl is they wont take the time out to question anything. They accept what they are told like little children and just believe it. Of course thats what they want us to do, but yea, thanks for being one who realizes his state of being.

What Harriet Tubman say? She probably could have freed more ppl if only they knew they were slaves... so many ppl today refuse to believe they still r, and so they just cant be saved.