The Fourth of July Fallacy
I’ve got whiplash.
Just two weeks ago, people, brands and businesses co-opted Juneteenth. It represents the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people were effectively emancipated in Texas — two years late.
Now, with breakneck speed, those same people, brands and businesses are gearing up to celebrate “Independence Day.”
But how can they do this? How, after they just purported to understand that Black people were not free on July 4th, 1776? The “holiday” is a fallacy, and the nation’s cognitive dissonance is staggering.
The Declaration of Independence declared nothing for us. In 1776, this country’s forefathers had already spent more than a century and a half smuggling us here on disease-infested ships, chaining us, whipping us and raping us in the name of America. And then they kept going for 89 more years.
The American dream is just that — a dream. A delusion. And for Black folks, it’s been a nightmare.
Without the rigorous and intentional interrogation of what this “holiday” represents, and how we all fit into the picture America paints of itself, we have learned nothing in the past month. The past four years. The past 400 years.
In his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?,” Frederick Douglass beautifully laid out — with a white audience in mind — the issue in recognizing a day of celebration that was not meant for all of us:
“I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
When we’ve seen Black death after Black death after Black death at the hands of those sworn to protect and serve; when we’ve seen police shoot rubber bullets and tear gas at police brutality protesters; when we’ve seen officers protect white supremacist rallies without issue: How can we celebrate this America? How can we not continue to mourn?
Celebrating the Fourth of July is a reflex, and a symptom of a bigger issue: the “normalcy” complex. Consider what normal is in America.
Normal allows for Black and Brown communities to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
Normal allows the federal government to separate families at our border and throw kids into cages.
Normal allows 30.5% of those in our military to be sexually harassed — 24.2% of which are women like Vanessa Guillen, who turned up dead and dismembered at Fort Hood.
Normal is hearing rumors that white supremacist groups intend to spend the “holiday” hunting and killing Black people and believing it might happen — because it’s happened before (see: 1921 Tulsa race massacre).
We can’t be “normal” anymore. Because normal is bigoted, unjust, and violent.
So before you tell your Facebook timeline how much fun you’re having eating hotdogs and watching fireworks on Saturday, about how glad you are to feel “normal” for a day, think about your Black friends and colleagues, think of the events of the last few months, and ask yourself what it is you’re celebrating.
Because, if I’ve got to watch white people go back and forth about where they stand for much longer, I might need a neck brace.
Misha Jones is a queer, Black woman who will finish her master’s degree in journalism in August 2020. She believes that all Black lives matter. Find her on Twitter @mishthejrnalist, and see more of her work on her website.
