4th of July
Dublin Core
Title
4th of July
Description
"I try to hibernate on the 4th of July. The nauseating flag waving and the jingoistic rhetoric drives me to distraction. Yes, the cook-outs and concerts and the other events are pleasant enough, but I usually stay at home so that there is not the slightest chance that anyone will get the mistaken impression that I am participating in any patriotic activity.
The last Fourth of July activity I attended was an anti- bicentennial demonstration in 1976.
I have often wondered why black people celebrate patriotic holidays when our treatment in this society has been as brutal as anything that has been experienced in the history of humanity.
Not only have we been brutalized physically, we have also been the victims of cultural imperialism. They take our cultural expressions claim them as their own and then sell them back to us.
Through research into black history I learned the Fourth of July was one day during the sweltering Summer when slaves had an off day...They could rest and listen to their masters hypocritically speak of freedom, equality, and justice.
Slaves listened to slaveowners talk about resisting tyranny when the slaveholders were maintaining the worst tyranny this planet has been seen. It must have been galling to hear that rhetoric.
Nat Turner, the prophet- a revolutionary who led a slave revolt in 1831 that made white people sleep lightly in Dixie, had the right idea about how to celebrate the Fourth of July. He planned to launch his war of liberation on that day, but circumstances caused a two month delay. Nat Turner would have made their boast of liberty or death a reality.
I shudder to think what this Independence Day will be like with the current hostage crisis going on. It is doubtful that they will be released before July 4 and so my sensitive ears will be bombarded with nationalistic excesses, as confused and impotent America rages against those who dared to hijack its plane.
The rhetoric will be as dishonest as it will be cliche-ridden. There will be the talk of America being an outpost of democracy and there will be ranting about the communist threat in Central America. I will try to drown the words out with the music or the recorded speeches of Malcolm X to make a counter-statement. I will read aloud Frederick Douglass famous speech on the meaning of the Fourth of July. I will express no joy in the successes of government that has been my enemy in a very real sense for two centuries and I will not wave a flag that flew over ships that carried my people packed like sardines in their filthy bellies.
I will not salute a flag that flew over a society where black people were officially subhuman property to be killed or bred like cattle.
I will not salute a flag that presided over the lynching of black people as recreation activity across this nation without the government of the United States ever officially outlawing the barbaric practice.
I will not wave the flag of the country that condemns huge numbers of people to ill-health, illiteracy, unemployment and poverty, cultural impoverishment and the threat of freezing to death in a doorway or an unheated home for the sake of corporate profit.
I will not salute the flag of the government that supports any bloody tyrant around the world who shouts anti-communist slogans while ignoring the cries of despair from young people trapped in urban and rural pockets of economic devastation.
I will not say a pledge to a flag that has flown over countless interventions into the affairs of sovereign nations, creating slaughter and animosities that are bearing fruit every day.
The same flag that flew over apartheid in this country represents the staunchest ally in the world for South African apartheid and I will not acknowledge it as my flag. It is the flag of multi-national corporations that plunder the world both economically and ecologically.
This red, white, and blue flag is the banner of a blind ignorance that has caused this country to be one of the most hated and feared in the world. It represents brutality, exploitation and oppression of people of color.
No emotion choked speech about Thomas Jefferson or reverential utterance about George Washington can make them anything other than slaveholders who would have deprived me of my freedom had I been unfortunate enough to be born to one of their slave women.
I will not stand for the National Anthem, a bellicose song that praises warfare. Rockets and bombs bursting in the air are not images I want associated with my nation.
If black people want to be patriotic let it be to ourselves. Let us be ready to sacrifice for freedom and development of our people as a group.
Let us view the education of our children as loyalty to our nation. Let us make the ultimate sacrifice to rid our communities of crime that debilitates us. Let us preserves and improve our cultural traditions and develop cultural institutions committed to our liberation.
The only patriotism that will benefit the black community is devotion to itself, otherwise known as black nationalism. The only flag that stands for our interests is the red, black, and green. "
The last Fourth of July activity I attended was an anti- bicentennial demonstration in 1976.
I have often wondered why black people celebrate patriotic holidays when our treatment in this society has been as brutal as anything that has been experienced in the history of humanity.
Not only have we been brutalized physically, we have also been the victims of cultural imperialism. They take our cultural expressions claim them as their own and then sell them back to us.
Through research into black history I learned the Fourth of July was one day during the sweltering Summer when slaves had an off day...They could rest and listen to their masters hypocritically speak of freedom, equality, and justice.
Slaves listened to slaveowners talk about resisting tyranny when the slaveholders were maintaining the worst tyranny this planet has been seen. It must have been galling to hear that rhetoric.
Nat Turner, the prophet- a revolutionary who led a slave revolt in 1831 that made white people sleep lightly in Dixie, had the right idea about how to celebrate the Fourth of July. He planned to launch his war of liberation on that day, but circumstances caused a two month delay. Nat Turner would have made their boast of liberty or death a reality.
I shudder to think what this Independence Day will be like with the current hostage crisis going on. It is doubtful that they will be released before July 4 and so my sensitive ears will be bombarded with nationalistic excesses, as confused and impotent America rages against those who dared to hijack its plane.
The rhetoric will be as dishonest as it will be cliche-ridden. There will be the talk of America being an outpost of democracy and there will be ranting about the communist threat in Central America. I will try to drown the words out with the music or the recorded speeches of Malcolm X to make a counter-statement. I will read aloud Frederick Douglass famous speech on the meaning of the Fourth of July. I will express no joy in the successes of government that has been my enemy in a very real sense for two centuries and I will not wave a flag that flew over ships that carried my people packed like sardines in their filthy bellies.
I will not salute a flag that flew over a society where black people were officially subhuman property to be killed or bred like cattle.
I will not salute a flag that presided over the lynching of black people as recreation activity across this nation without the government of the United States ever officially outlawing the barbaric practice.
I will not wave the flag of the country that condemns huge numbers of people to ill-health, illiteracy, unemployment and poverty, cultural impoverishment and the threat of freezing to death in a doorway or an unheated home for the sake of corporate profit.
I will not salute the flag of the government that supports any bloody tyrant around the world who shouts anti-communist slogans while ignoring the cries of despair from young people trapped in urban and rural pockets of economic devastation.
I will not say a pledge to a flag that has flown over countless interventions into the affairs of sovereign nations, creating slaughter and animosities that are bearing fruit every day.
The same flag that flew over apartheid in this country represents the staunchest ally in the world for South African apartheid and I will not acknowledge it as my flag. It is the flag of multi-national corporations that plunder the world both economically and ecologically.
This red, white, and blue flag is the banner of a blind ignorance that has caused this country to be one of the most hated and feared in the world. It represents brutality, exploitation and oppression of people of color.
No emotion choked speech about Thomas Jefferson or reverential utterance about George Washington can make them anything other than slaveholders who would have deprived me of my freedom had I been unfortunate enough to be born to one of their slave women.
I will not stand for the National Anthem, a bellicose song that praises warfare. Rockets and bombs bursting in the air are not images I want associated with my nation.
If black people want to be patriotic let it be to ourselves. Let us be ready to sacrifice for freedom and development of our people as a group.
Let us view the education of our children as loyalty to our nation. Let us make the ultimate sacrifice to rid our communities of crime that debilitates us. Let us preserves and improve our cultural traditions and develop cultural institutions committed to our liberation.
The only patriotism that will benefit the black community is devotion to itself, otherwise known as black nationalism. The only flag that stands for our interests is the red, black, and green. "
Creator
R.B. Jones
Publisher
Afro-American (1893-1988)
Date
1985-7-6
Collection
Citation
R.B. Jones, “4th of July,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 27, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/281.