What is a Slave to the 4th of July?

Whenever I have a group meeting with a team from my company, I like to start with an off-topic question. As we each answer, we have the opportunity to chat and reveal things about ourselves. Before covid and the rise of the Zoom meeting, these personal conversations would happen naturally prior to business meetings; now, they don’t happen unless you make them.

At the beginning of a meeting I held this past week, I started by asking what the Fourth of July meant to everyone. There were four people on the call. One person talked about parties, another about fireworks, and a third said it was the one day that hot dogs were allowed to be part of her culinary life, and that she would eat two or three. No judgment.

The fourth, a person of color, said (I’m paraphrasing), “I understand white Americans celebrating their freedom. But it wasn’t a day of freedom for my ancestors. We were slaves, and we still do not enjoy the same freedoms as the rest of you.”

First and foremost, I admire her courage in saying this. Not everyone would have. Mostly though, I was caught off guard by the gentle, but firm way she said it. No malice. No anger. Just a simple statement of fact reflecting an understanding of our love of the holiday, but not sharing it.

I also appreciate that she did say it, because it made me rethink what this day means. Now, instead of talking about flags, fireworks, and other celebrations of 1776 and our nation’s independence, I intend to spend the day reaching out to my posse and those I mentor to remind them that freedom in America is not doled out in equal amounts to all those who live here. The color of one’s skin still determines how much of the freedom in our melting pot one enjoys.

Then I came across Frederick Douglas’ speech on the the very topic. Some food for thought over this holiday weekend.

By the way—In case you were wondering, I was the hot dog person on my Zoom call. If anyone dares to say anything about this, I’m going to take affirmative action to remove you from my circle.

What to a Slave is the 4th of July: by Frederick Douglas

"What to a Slave is the 4th of July." That's the title of a speech delivered in 1852 by escaped slave and outspoken orator Frederick Douglass to a group of abolitionists. Douglass was born 200 years ago.

Fellow citizens. Pardon me, allow me to ask why am I called upon to speak here today. What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence or the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in the Declaration of Independence extended to us? Am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude of the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence is shared by you, not by me. Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reached them.

My subject, then fellow-citizens, is American slavery.

Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July. Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.

I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery — the great sin and shame of America. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.”