By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
Wave the flag, shoot the fireworks, fire up the grills, pack the coolers, gather with family and friends, take in parades, and enjoy a day off work, maybe even two days. A perennial blow-out celebration – the unofficial kick-off of Summer, the 4th of July. Independence Day in America is wrapped in patriotism, pomp, jubilation and God Bless America. Two hundred forty-eight years and counting now. Yee Hah!
By severing our servitude to Britain, the Second Continental Congress created an opportunity for change, a new foundation of independence, autonomy and freedom through the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. We think of the preamble, and the majestic words we all know so well, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.”
The opening paragraph – “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America, when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation,” per www.archives.gov.
While we were the first to declare independence from the British Empire, some 65 countries have followed our lead, and just 15 countries remain under the monarchy, per www.britanica.com. A September 9, 2022 article in www.news.northeastern.edu, shares: “The leader of the South African party Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, Mzwanele Nyhontso, said that his party couldn’t sing praises for a monarchy that engineered trans-Atlantic slave trade that resulted in the genocide of more than 12 million Africans and enforced illegal extraction of more than 20 million compatriots. Slavery robbed the continent of its labor and built economies of Western Hemisphere instead.”
By declaring the natural rights of a sovereign nation, it seems so basic to assume that as our country gained independence, surely those rights would transition to all its people as well. Perhaps that’s just too easy to say in hindsight. We know progress has been made toward equality, but never easily – only with profound pressure – and this has been true in these United States ever since 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln. Truth be told, even though Lincoln opposed slavery and repeatedly called it morally wrong, he didn’t truly believe in equality in terms of social and political rights. He did not believe that Black people should have the right to vote, serve on juries, to hold office, or to intermarry with whites, per www.history.com. Contemplating the meaning of Independence Day involves contradiction.
Is it or is it not a contradiction that we as a country celebrate Independence Day even as we continue to systemically discriminate against minorities? We all know it’s true, but how many care enough to speak out, to apply pressure, or are willing to disrupt the status quo?
Examples in Mississippi: We have the highest African-American population in America, per capita, yet 94% of state agencies are headed by European Americans. Mississippi’s legislature has 174 members, 56 are African American – 32% and the Census tells us 38% of population is African American. The voices of the 32% are important, yet pale in relation to the 68% of European American voices. Per the 2022 Minority Participation Report, 94.5% of contracts for goods and services in Mississippi go to “non-minorities.” But it gets far worse, under a minority classification labeled “non-ethnic women,” white women contractors received 67.46% of the total “minority” funding. So much for equity. Happy Independence Day. All of this is willful behavior, our lack of equality in Mississippi is deliberate.
Nationally, in his first week in office, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Racial Equity. He called for urgent action to advance equity for all, calling this a “battle for the soul of [the] nation” because “systemic racism” is “corrosive,” “destructive” and “costly.” Per NBC News, more than 100 bills have been passed nationwide to either restrict or regulate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The Supreme Court gutted affirmative action in college admissions. Only 7 states have not banned or made some attempt to ban Critical Race Theory – a theoretical framework of systemic racism in America.
In this 21st century, for all our advancements and progress, we still have a large percentage of our society that does not want to talk about slavery and the persisting residual impacts of slavery that continue to this very day. They are fine with teaching about the 13 colonies, Christopher Columbus, and the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria though – that’s authorized.
Per National Public Radio, “Across the U.S., educators are being censored for broaching controversial topics. Since January 2021, researcher Jeffrey Sachs says, 35 states have introduced 137 bills limiting what schools can teach with regard to race, American history, politics, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
There’s more to Independence Day than baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. We are said to be the wealthiest country in the world; overflowing with resources, yet we have so far to go before all our people are equal, and before all our people are fully embraced and able to enjoy the rights declared in our nation’s independence. The contradiction continues.
Be the first to comment