4th of July: What Does “Freedom” Look Like After 250 Years?
On July 4, 2026, the United States’ skies will be battered with colorful fireworks and busy streets filled with people and smells of good American barbecue. While the country will be celebrating its 250 year anniversary of independence from Great Britain, we must ask ourselves the true meaning of the holiday. As Frederick Douglass has put into his own words,
“I answer; a day that reveals to him [The American Slave], more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”
Every 4th of July, I am reminded of the injustices found in American History. Frederick Douglass, born into slavery in 1818 and escaped 20 years later, delivered his iconic abolitionist speech before a crowd of white abolitionists in 1852. He reminds the crowd, and truthfully, generations after him, that the 4th of July is not a day to be celebrated, but a day of remembrance. A day to remember the sacrifices and injustices African American slaves were put through just decades before.
Furthermore, even before the injustices that Douglass calls to point, the genocide of the indigenous people at the time of America’s colonization by European settlers also calls into the irony America’s boast of liberty. Two centuries later, we are reminded by Martin Luther King Jr., from his 1964 book, Why We Can’t Wait:
“Our nation was born in genocide.… That…We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today, we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode.”
While I read Douglass’ speech and recall the genocide of the indigenous peoples, I am reminded of the modern day injustices here in the United States, with the present encampment of thousands of immigrants and our prison system.
What is the pursuit of man and its so-called liberty if people are not free? If minorities are still, to this day, being held captive for crimes they have not committed? Douglass reminds us of these injustices, and calls into question the true meaning of liberty in the United States.
While the United States has been called a nation of immigrants and home to millions, many do not feel at home. Immigrants do not escape to the United States to make a “new home” per say, but to envelop their lives in the opportunities and resources the American Dream promised them. However, this hypocrisy is quickly realized by those who immigrate, as they lack access to their rights, their liberty, and their own pursuit of happiness. Immigrants have lost access to welfare resources as their families earn little to no income in an unstable economy. Immigrants have felt isolated, in a system that calls them “aliens” but boasts on its melting pot of cultures and communities found within them.
The prison system itself is a racial disparity built on the history and discriminatory practices towards specifically, Black Americans today. While Douglass was a free man when he spoke during his speech, his words still ring true today –
“…the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”
A recent report by the UN (United Nations) found that the modern day prison system is a version of contemporary slavery today. However, this same prison system is driven by capitalism, and the power of money itself. Mass incarceration results in wealth being sucked from the most poor of the nation, and as a result, keeping them poor. The private prison system directly contributes to this, so while Douglass’ version of the abolitionist movement was the hypocrisy of freedom with slavery, today’s version is slightly different – private property that controls wealth, and in turn, keeps minorities and immigrants at the lowest level of the economic chain.
While minorities feel the brunt of these injustices, ultimately, it affects everyone as it is a class issue, not just a race issue. Even for the general population, the American Dream has become unattainable. The percentage of non-Hispanic whites who fell below the poverty line in 2020 was 8.2% (15.9 million people). While the percentage is lower compared to African Americans at 19.5% (8.5 million people) and for Hispanics, 17.0% (10.4 million people) looking at the actual numbers, there are more whites in poverty, close to 15.9 million. The struggle of the nation is now class, and the billionaires that keep themselves at the top of the chain.
I invite you to read Douglass’ speech, and make sense of his words today and how they relate to core features of the systems that plague those most vulnerable, whether it is financially, culturally, or emotionally. Usually, it’s a strong version of the three altogether. So while the fireworks might be pretty to view on the rooftop of your home, let us remember those who are denied freedom and are bearing the consequences of America’s history today.
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