Monday, July 4, 2016

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass


Those of us at the PJS Blog feel fortunate to have the U.S. be our home country, but blind patriotism is at the core of the many modern day issues strewn across America. In this eloquent speech, Fredrick Douglass attacks, "the land of the free, and home of the brave" as it should. Imagine, if you or your ancestors were legally the property of another human being as a tool to increase wealth? And then in 2016, people told you to 'get over it'-there's no connection to the disproportionate amount of Black folks currently incarcerated, ongoing police brutality, and the BLM movement.

Never forget that these lands where english is forced as the only language, where white men are still given disproportionate benefits for simply their race and gender, where slavery built the economy, and the founding of the country is grounded in the genocide of Indigenous peoples, that there is always hope so long as you are willing to fight.

In Solidarity.