Freedom? in the US...
If you have to party tomorrow, think about what freedom means when the u.s. has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners. Think about what freedom means in a land that was stolen and then developed with stolen labor. Consciousness does not just come, we must search towards it.
Frederick Douglass's "The Meaning of July Fourth to The Negro" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html''
".....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 denunciation 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 the United States, at this very hour......."
".....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 denunciation 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 the United States, at this very hour......."
posted by Morgane at 7/04/2006 01:56:00 PM
2 Comments:
wow...that shit is so true! It's important to spread the word though, get out there people!Fuck July fourth...I'm still drinking though (but not in celebration for America, let that be known!)
I find that people often say things as such, i.e "fuck america, fuck july 4th), etc because its "hip," and not because they truly understand why it is wrong (in this case, for people of color). Its important to educate oneself by asking very simple questions such as, why are certain holidays offensive? What does freedom mean? And, how can we educate others?
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