As a former slave and freedom fighter who
suffered terrible abuse as a young child and saw the
agonizing brutality of slavery up front and personal,
Frederick Douglass refused to lend his name to any
celebration that white washed the high sounding values of
the so-called "founding fathers" since black people were
held as mere chattel and subject to inhumane living
conditions and racist injustice.
No, for Frederick Douglass, who witnessed
first hands the brutal and murderous hand of slave masters
and the ongoing madness of Jim Crow, to speak in glowing
terms of the concepts of freedom and liberty when such
precepts were not extended to native Americans and black
people would have been a farce of the first degree.
So, from the date of any July 4 celebration
to the present date when America lauds and extols the
virtues of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Benjamin
Franklin as examples of true Americanism, I contend that
people of color need to take a step back and recall and
remember that the history of this country has never been
kind or generous to people of color.
And I still wonder why today, black people,
of all people, would dress up in any red, white and blue
costumes and sing lustily about, "America", "My Country Tis’
Of Thee" and other songs that ring foolish to them.
Songs that deny their humanity. Songs that
mock their cries for equal justice. Songs that speak of
liberty for all but we know that in reality it was songs of
liberty for white people only and for white males in
particular.
And still I wonder even more when some black
churches encourage their congregations to join in and sing
history defying gibberish such as, "land of my fathers",
"pilgrim’s pride", "brotherhood from sea to shining sea";
and here is the biggest lie: "Sweet land of liberty...of
thee I sing!"
Do people really read the verses to these
mockeries called songs and hymns that extol the greatness of
white America while that same America was lynching black
people and separating children from their parents and
selling them to other far away plantations?
Why would a choir director or a pastor
encourage such songs to be sung with any gusto knowing very
well that when those false refrains were being composed,
black people were chattel as if they were pigs or corn or
cattle?
America was engaged in hostile, terroristic
and deplorable behavior against a people made in the image
of God but yet some black and white churches at that time
and to present date, still sing with lingering amnesia about
America’s sordid racial history.
The shame is that too many people of color
bleach their memories of this sordid American history and
sing these "patriotic" songs, when, back in the day, if they
accidentally bumped into a white person they could be
summarily lynched.
If they complained of being shortchanged at
the local store, they could be brutally whipped. If they did
not step off of sidewalk and let white people pass along
unimpeded, they could be called out and maimed and burned at
the stake. If they tried to register to vote, their body
would be found floating in a local river.
Time does not permit the stories of mass
lynchings, the burning of black neighborhoods, the rape of
black women, the castration of black males and the abuse of
young girls and boys and women at the hands of whites who
felt offended sometimes at just at the mere presence of
black people in their midst.
There are stories of pastors blessing
lynchings and of people having picnics at sites of lynchings
and newspapers broadcasting the time and place of murderous
acts against black people.
But yet....somehow and in some way, some
black people celebrate the Fourth of July as if it was their
personal independence and freedom; and that somehow those
patriotic songs have duped them into believing that they
were the intended recipients of those rights and privileges
that were structurally designed and implemented and enforced
only for white citizens.
If you correctly view July 4 in the narrow
confines as a rebellion of people against the authority of
the English government and on grounds that the colonizers
were sick and tired of being sick and tired of oppression,
then you will not be
so quick to have tears in your eyes when you
see their fireworks or hear a drum and bugle corps parade
around glorifying their rebellion.
No, my Negro friend and any brainwashed
Negro supporters of July 4, that holiday was never meant for
the slave or the freeman. It was never designed with the
Negro in mind as to he or she enjoying the fruits of
colonial independence from their mother England.
The Fourth of July was always and will
always be a memorial to white people glorifying their
successful warfare against the harsh reign of King George.
The composers of those patriotic/religious
songs never for a nanosecond had the black slave in mind
when they wrote of the joys and fruits of liberty and
freedom.
The slave and his progeny, as visualized by
the songwriter, was seen as less than a human being and was
not considered worthy of freedom nor could they benefit from
it since they were considered childlike, docile and in need
of constant supervision.
So, the next time the Fourth of July rolls
around, read the words of those songs and remember, you were
on the outside looking in and no amount of singing, however
loudly, proudly and lustily you engage in, will or can
change those grisly historical facts.
But, if you still choose to sing songs that
denigrated you and relegated you to a marginalized life of
slavery and servitude, go ahead and sing, but know that you
are making a foolish spectacle of yourself and Frederick
Douglass looks on you with pity and disbelief.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com
