The Fourth of July is a Fraud

The Fourth of July is a fraud. Whose independence was it anyway? The Founding Fathers wanted independence and freedom only for a select few. It's no different from our leadership today.

Facts indicate the Fourth of July celebration is a piece of white, Eurocentric mythology. The celebration has fooled everyone in this country to embrace historical fallacy rather than truth. This holiday reminds me NOT of American independence; it reminds me of the hypocrisy this country has seduced us to blindly follow without questioning its authenticity… The time is long overdue for those who have the truth to share it without fear of admonishment or backlash. (Dexter Rogers, HuffPost)

I’m not naive. I realize that some of us don’t know or have a reason to question America’s mythology. After all, we’ve been methodically conditioned to not question the American paradigm. While the latter is plausible it is no longer an excuse because you’ve now been informed. (Dexter Rogers, HuffPost)

The entire American education curriculum needs to be rewritten. American history, literature and culture are decided by white people in order to uphold their white supremacist values. It all needs to change. Educators who know the truth need to be able to teach it without fear and without punishment. Continuing to teach something without questioning its validity should no longer be acceptable. A good educator’s job is to liberate the minds of their students.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

Frederick Douglass, 1852

The holiday began as a celebration of the Declaration of Independence and the phrase that made the document a call for equality, “all men are created equal.” Since our society has never been equal, the holiday and everything it stands for, is a sham. How can you expect anyone to celebrate something that emphasizes the oppression of nonwhite, non-binary, non-Christian people all over the world? The United States is one of the world’s worst oppressors. It has ruined countless cultures, countries and lives. It is the single biggest contributor to the climate crisis, which is the reason we are headed towards mass extinction.

Shame on you, America.

This land isn’t yours, it was stolen. This isn’t the land of the free. It’s the land of corporate greed and modern day indentured servitude. This isn’t the home of the brave. It’s the home of the brainwashed and corrupt.

Boycott the 4th of July.

*Additional reading: The Declaration of Independence is sexist, racist and prejudiced.

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Actual Acts of Solidarity from MSNBC, Nike and, of Course, Kaepernick

Thank you to MSNBC for choosing not to air President Trump’s military parade.

And a HUGE fist bump of solidarity to Colin Kaepernick for speaking his mind and filing a complaint to Nike about the release of their Betsy Ross 4th of July Airmax, an Americana-themed sneaker to celebrate the holiday.

(In his message to Nike, Kaepernick reportedly complained about the flag because it flew during an era in which slavery was in practice. Others have rebuked the Ross flag specifically because of its connections to anti-black extremist groups, including a white supremacist group called III% and the Ku Klux Klan. - Slate)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Colin Kaepernick’s legacy will be on the right side of the history. The American education system will have believe that people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks were beloved by all during the civil rights movement but the truth is that white people HATED and demonized them too. The only reason Colin Kaepernick gets any backlash is because there is a large contingent in this country that has never gotten over the changes of the 1960s and the passing of the Civil Rights Act. If you don’t support Colin Kaepernick and his activism, you’re going to find yourself on the wrong side of history along with all the people who supported slavery, racial segregation and Jim Crow.

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Decolonize Your Bookshelves

Check out A People’s History of American Empire by Howard Zinn.

Back in 1980, when Howard Zinn published his book, A People’s History of the United States, it started a revolution in how history is told. This time Zinn is back, this time in graphic novel form, to tell us the story of America’s empire — the centuries-long story of America’s brutal, bloody, imperialist and colonialist actions around the world. It tells the story of the United State’s expansion that led to the stealing of land right here on the North American continent, all the way to the occupation and colonization of Alaska and Hawaii, and onward to Southeast Asia and Iraq. This is a history book that challenges a lot of the assumptions taken by the history textbooks we are forced to read in schools.

Howard Zinn was one of our greatest historians, because he challenged the mainstream and saw his job as more than teaching history: he was a social activist that fought against injustice.

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