What to the descendants (in blood and spirit) of enslaved Africans is the Fourth of July?

One hundred and sixty years ago, Frederick Douglass, one of the few Black American figures in history that is commonly learned about in our sham of a public education system, delivered a speech at Corinthian Hall to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This speech, in all its eloquence is one of the most memorable pieces of American history but is rarely studied for what it actually states, the spirit it evokes, the undeniable call to action that it heeds. Throughout his speech, Douglass uses the strategic beauty of church-sermon oratory to make his points. He states, after praising the efforts of the origins of American freedom, "This Fourth of July is YOURS, not MINE. YOU may rejoice, I must mourn." As he spoke in this room of majority white men he reinforced the fact that this holiday has nothing to do with his freedom and even less to do with the freedom (which was not legislated at the time) of the rest of his people. He goes on to state: 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 sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, 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. Sadly, as true as this was upon its original utterance on July 5, 1852... this is even more pertinent and relevant to the time and space the African diaspora in America finds itself in today. This day, more than other holiday, should not incite joy and happiness but should serve as a reminder of our reality. Despite our attempts to look, act, speak, and live like White America, we are not them... nor will they ever permit us to be. Our freedom is STILL being negotiated by the political system TODAY. It took over a hundred years after Douglass delivered his speech for the political system to even acknowledge a need to address the gross injustice being infringed upon Africans in America. Over fifty years after that there is debate across the country deeming that legislation unnecessary and are finding ways to dismiss, repeal, and ultimately further disenfranchise the Black community. However, that still, for many, puts my critique of the holiday in the abstract. Not many understand how policy works, nor do they care because (as I was once one of these people) have been socialized to ignore politics (a master trick of our oppressors). However, the daily lived experiences of Blacks in the country still begs the question: What to the descendants (in blood and spirit) of enslaved Africans is the Fourth of July? If we are to claim this day as a holiday we are either stating that we too were freed by the signing of the Declaration of Independence or that our current social, political, and economic state in this country is appropriate, warranted and deserved. There is no other way to look at this day other than an admission of our failed freedom and acceptance of our current plight. Is that the message we want to share with our children? Is that the spirit we want our families to bond together? Is this all it means to be Black in America? Today is not OUR holiday. It is a celebration of a freedom we have never received. Further, it is the celebration of the justification of our plight... the birth of white power and privilege reigning through supreme and arguably divine order. It is a holiday that celebrates our forced oppression, our murder, our depression, and our hate. It is a holiday that we have foolishly attempted to claim as our own and by doing so...we disgracing ourselves by disrespecting our ancestors, ignoring our history, and further driving ourselves into the abyss of insurmountable hatred of self.' Historian and beloved ancestor Dr. John Henrik Clarke has said that “History is a clock that people use to tell their political time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they have been and what they have been. It also tells a people where they are and what they are. Most importantly, history tells a people where they still must go and what they still must be.” What does our personal history with this holiday tell us? If we find ourselves at the nail shop looking for special red, white, and blue designs....if we find ourselves at the clothing store looking for the perfect red, white, and blue outfit.... if we find ourselves waiting for the special Fourth of July edition of sneakers to wear on this holiday.... if we find ourselves not uttering a word about any of our ancestors today but relishing on the fact that we do not have to work today... if we find ourselves on picnic blankets watching fireworks.... WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT US? For me, I cannot, in full sanity and clear consciousness, live this day in celebration of American independence. This holiday is a STARK reminder of what we where we have been, what we are, and where we still must go as a people. For me... today is at its base a Sankofa Celebration. More than a surface level celebration of African culture but a TRUE celebration and remembrance of our history and our ancestors. On this Sankofa Celebration we look critically at our history as Africans in America over the last 400 years. We embrace the reality of our existence here and we do so not for the sake of knowledge but for the sake of application. We know our history so we can speak into existence a better future... a future that is truly about FREEDOM...African Liberation. For this day... I pour libation, I read, I reflect, and I work.... for today is not a day of rest it is a day that reminds us of the work that WE MUST DO. I call upon my ancestors, those in blood, those in spirit, and those in ideology.... Fathers of our Fathers, Mothers of our Mothers to bear total and complete witness to where we are, what we are doing, and where we trying to go. I call upon those who have led by example: Queen Hatshepsut who let Kemet peacefully for great time, Yaa Asantewaa who ardently and unapologetically fought for her people, Marcus Garvey who led us, the branches of a global tree, back to our roots, Brother Malcolm X who said it plain, Brother Huey who created a template for us.... who stood in the glory of Black power... These ancestors, lovers of our African spirit inspire us toward reclaiming our African minds, regenerating our African SCHOLAR, WARRIOR spirits, liberating our homeland, and reclaiming our greatness as a people. We pour for them... We pour this libation to bring into our midst their venerable African spirit, radiating their great wisdom, courage, dedication, and unyielding commitment to victory by any means necessary. It is in the honor of our Creator, our Ancestors, our Children, our Children’s Children, and our Children’s Children Children.that we pour this libation. For the Creator, and the various manifestation of the Creative spirit; who we can graciously thank for each person in this room, each family history, each story, each experience lived and considered... who has consciously determined the necessity for us to wake up each day and take breath.. We Pour... For our esteemed ancestors, who laid the foundation for human civilization, and who provided the wisdom by which we live and the models by which our lives are guided; Our ancestors from Kemet, Songhay, Mali, Timbuktu, Nubia, Kush, the Dogon people of which without them we would not be able to direct ourselves toward a universal time and space, the Bantu-Kongo people who have modeled our mode of self governance and self correctness, and ultimately... the first people who walked this earth, who ate the first food, told the first stories, hugged the first hugs, LOVE THE FIRST LOVES, and birthed into us the future of African resilience We Pour... For our esteem ancestors who have suffered the atrocities and horrors of our MAAFA(The African Holocaust), and yet demonstrated the victorious power of the African spirit against adversity, by maintaining their dignity no matter the cost. These men, women, and children who fought mightily from their imprisonment, those who never saw the light of day as a living spirit once entering those boats, those who upon immediate refusal of the horror jumped into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, those whose bodies laid at the bottom of the boat screaming for their families, their people, their god... We Pour... And for those ancestors who survived and made it possible for us to be here today to continue on their valiant struggle for African liberation and vindication. Those ancestors who refused to be anything less than a man, anything less than a woman. Those ancestors that toiled the fields of stolen land in Georgia, Alabama, Virgina, Florida, Mississippi, Maryland, and the Carolinas....Those who cautiously worked by day and planned at night to overthrow the tyrrany of the oppressor, the Nat Turners, the Denmark Veseys, the Black Seminoles, Fracois Dominique Toussaint L'Ouvertures, the Harriet Tubmans, the David Walkers, and the Gabriel Prossers and to all those whose names we do not know because of our history being violently stripped from our psyches and buried deep under the lies and myths which have built this country We Pour... And finally, for our Children and their children and future generations of Africans to come, that they too in their time will vindicate our race from all adversaries and continue to imprint upon the world the great genius of african humanity; It is for their futures that we work so diligently in the immediate, that we strive to combat our issues educationally, culturally, economically, and politically. It is for their futures that we NO, WE MUST CONTINUE TO FIGHT. It is for thier brown beautiful faces that we understand what love is. We pour. We as a collective now take the time to call out loud the names of our ancestors. whomever it is that has transitioned that is responsible for bringing us here, in full awareness and existence, to this maroon space today: It is with their love, their support, their nurturing spirit that we are able to continue day by day to re-Africanize ourselves in thought, word, and deed. Their resiliency fuels the fire with in and ignites a power within us so great that out of pure fear of its ability we accept attempts to squelch it. I humbly ask them, to renew us again. Renew us in love, a love of of self so deep and nourishing that it becomes contagious across the board. A love so complete that it requires us to go beyond individual understanding and fully accept I AM MY BROTHER and I AM MY SISTER and not their keeper. A love so strong that its unadulterated presence speaks truth to power without shame. A love so definite that it supports, it disciplines, it cautions, it encourages, it engulfs, it submerges, it breathes... it lives. Renew us in love, the most powerful revolutionary act. We Pour... and finally.... we pour not a libation but an affirmation for those whose mouths still form to speak words of wisdom, whose minds still remember the spirit of maat, the nia or purpose of our lives, whose growth still continues to be inspired and enlightened by those around us.... we speak out the names of the living... the african warrior scholar spirits... whose call we heed, whose mission we live out, and whose love we cherish... we pour for us.... for this space that we have created, for the unity in mind, spirit, and purpose that share, for the journey we are about embark upon... for the work that we have no choice but to commit ourselves to... all of the creator’s divine creation say ase...ase....ase