July 4, 1776 not only was I not considered a citizen, I wasn’t considered human. My people were property to be bought and sold while those who were considered citizens celebrated their independence from their captive in England. Their independence rested on the backs of the native people and Blacks who built this land.

July 4, 1776

I was not a citizen

I was never an immigrant

100 years later,

July 4, 1876

I was still not even considered a person

Property was my title

100 more years later

July 4, 1976

Grueling work was my function until death

For centuries.

This is why I do not, and cannot recognize this holiday. To ‘celebrate’ independence day is a slap in the face of my ancestors who were desperate to create meaning for their own lives but limited by the way others perceived their ‘usefulness’ in the field or the kitchen. Now that we have the ability to distinguish ourselves from this society we are too brainwashed to have the desire, and too tired to form the organizational capacity to do what our people were desperate to do when all we were allowed to do was work on fields and tend to our masters. That was a mouthful…

There is no way I can comfortably celebrate this ‘holiday’, but what about when you are forced to as a result of sitting in your church pew? Yesterday, Sunday July 2nd I sat squirming in my seat during  morning service. Although some my ask, what revolutionary goes to church on Sundays? (Here’s why), but as a Black Christian there are moments of conflict I face while at church and today illustrated a huge one. I didn’t take as many notes during this service because I was trying to keep myself from walking out of the sanctuary, or even standing up and shouting, “The home of the free where?” “In a land that has the highest rate of incarceration, the land that imprisons more of its own citizens than any other developed country” In my mind there’s nothing free about America, but how can I explain that to a white cis-gender middle-aged male pastor. For the past few weeks the church had been marketing their “Freedom Weekend” celebration in recognition of independence day but I didn’t take it seriously until I walked through the doors that Sunday and saw the worship team outfitted in red, white and blue stars and stripes and I’d never felt more uncomfortable at church.

Some people may argue, July 4th is our holiday, we are [finally] American citizens now so why continue to bring up the past? Doesn’t this only hurt us and keep us from moving forward into full equality? My response is simple, No. The choice to remind this society of the fact that July 4th is an invalid day to celebrate American independence for African Americans is reminding people of the truth. Why cover up the truth unless you have ill intentions? This is no fault of the church, the church is a place to bring people together so if people are going to be celebrating July 4th at least they’re doing it safely at church instead of at some club or unsafe party. However, we must recognize that so long as we continue to celebrate this day over June 19th (especially without any national recognition of June 19th) then we are validating the erasure of a very important aspect of Black history. This is a part of our story that we as a people have worked so hard to be able to know and tell. It’s dangerous that even today my generation and parent’s generation aren’t fully aware of Juneteenth so we have a lot of work to do when it comes to educating ourselves on our history and culture. I’d blame our general misinformation about our culture on the fact that we do not dedicate any time (outside of Black History Month, the shortest month of the year castrated by Valentines Day, Presidents day and Winter Break ) to celebrating and learning about our historical milestones and accomplishments. As a result, we fail to see our own significance because we focus on the significance of those who enslaved us over our own. We continue praising Presidents like Washington and Jefferson who raped, tortured and stole from our people, this only works to dehumanize and degrade us. This misinformed and ignorant celebration has to stop.

The significance of the separation of the church from the state is not economic or political, it is Biblical:

We, Black people, have been taken captive by American ideology. Although we recognize that these traditions do not apply to us we celebrate them anyway for lack of a better thing to do on our day off, or maybe we do it to avoid conflict. Our existence in this country has been dependent on the comfort of the dominant race (whites in this land), meaning that when they are uncomfortable we suffer and when they are uncomfortable societal changes adapt. However, when we are uncomfortable we are pushed out of the society. For example with our hair, our dress, our talk we are forced to adapt to their meaning of professionalism to get a job, we must meet their standards of beauty to find a mate and adopt their idea of intelligence in order to be educated. Our people are suffering because we aren’t made to conform to their ideas of humanity. What being human is supposed to look like, looks different for us and we will continue to suffer until we actively resist.As a people now dedicated to liberation over assimilation, we must recognize this and although we will suffer in our resistance we must still organize in order to strengthen our impact.

I say all this to say that regardless of what aspect of this society I find comfort in, it is still infiltrated by conflict because of the fact that I am in the United States. I’m constantly faced with that reality. The only way that I can truly find (or create) a safe space for me to operate in this society is to surround myself with like-minded individuals. While living in Seattle this can be a serious challenge, but there are ways.