July 4th, 1776 marks the day that the U.S. liberated itself from British rule. On that day, the reign of the crown was no longer.
These separatists were supposedly “free.” However, the white man could finally govern his land, while the others could only live to be at his beck and calls.
The Fourth of July marks the day the white man was liberated, but no other person saw freedom until much later. The black man was not free until the Emancipation Proclamation, and even then, Jim Crow laws and other discriminatory factors kept them from being truly free. A country that celebrates freedom and justice for all did not see its entire population as equal in 1776 and it still does not in 2020.
When a black man and a white man, who have both committed the same crime, are tried in a court of law and only the black man is punished to the full extent of the law, it is obvious whom the government truly glamorizes. When the President esteems property damage and vandalism over the lives of citizens and minorities, what is there to feel except betrayal.
When minorities — like Breonna Tayler, George Floyd, Atatiana Jefferson, Aura Rosser, so many more — are killed by the hand of officers, people start to wonder why the police really exist and for what purpose. Historically, law enforcement served to capture and return slaves to their owners in the 1800s, and it seems like this form of systematic racism has stayed ingrained into the 21st-century American justice system.
Peaceful protestors are maced and gassed when all they want is change. What’s more, is that human rights are still subjected to debate in 2020 — and that alone is horrendous. A person’s life should not have to be debated nor should it have to be labeled in politics. The notion of human rights is an ethical infrastructure that should not be susceptible to degradation but rather appreciated and preserved instead.
If all lives had mattered, then the day at which the Declaration of Independence was signed should have been the very day that all black men and women were free. But this simply is not the case.
The flag that waves and represents the U.S. is covered in bloodshed and hypocrisy. Remember that on this day, there are still people fighting for their lives, for their right to breathe and live.
Despite all the advancements our government has made for minorities, there is still much to be done before this country can proudly celebrate the 4th of July.
