This past weekend has seen the celebration of America's Fourth of July. And whether one has joined in the revelry often depends on one's status in or because of America. The epitome of that truth can be seen in Frederick Douglass's speech on what the Fourth of July means to a slave (click here). While the Fourth is celebrated by those who have benefited from that independence from England, His speech focused on those who were victims of America.
But Douglass goes beyond that to examine the mindset of those who were celebrating the day. Douglass talked about how celebrating July 4th was really a delusional celebration of oneself. The Fourth of July celebrations were vain attempts to flatter oneself. The celebrations were vain because of how those who celebrated it either neglected the plight of or abused African Americans back then. Consider the tail end of his speech
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.
The point of Douglass's speech is that one's status of being, either privileged or marginalized, can greatly affect how one sees events like the Fourth of July. Such would imply that what is being celebrated on Independence Day is not freedom, but privilege. For freedom minus equality is privilege.
Though slavery no longer legally exists in America, other forms of marginalization do. And so for those who have been celebrating July 4th, how aware are they of those who have been marginalized by our nation's existence? Do they know that while celebrating their independence, they are actually celebrating their privilege rather than freedom? It is a privilege because it is not enjoyed by all. And if they know that their independence is a privilege, are they disturbed by that fact? Does it bother them that others cannot passionately embrace the July 4th holiday because of how those others are marginalized? And if it doesn't, do they believe that they deserve their independence while others, and here I am referring to law-abiding citizens, do not?
For those who believe that only some deserve independence, celebrating the Fourth of July goes beyond a mere flattering of oneself. Rather, it becomes an exercise in idolatry where we should remember what Chris Hedges said about it when citing Augustine. He said that in the end, idolatry is about self-worship (click here). And perhaps that is one reason why we see such joyous celebrations and vigorous defenses of Independence Day.
We have neither slavery nor Frederick Douglass any more, but we do have quite a few Americans who are still marginalized. That is part of what Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Black Lives Matter (BLM) are trying to address. Though not without errors, both CRT and BLM, have taken Frederick Douglass's role of speaking out for the marginalized by challenging our moral character reflected in how freedom for some Americans is actually a privilege. They are challenging us to change our privileges into freedoms by expanding access to those privileges to all. And because they do not do these things without error, they need to be criticized. But there is a difference between being critical and being skeptical. There is even a greater difference between being critical and being condemnatory.
We should note that those who are skeptical or condemnatory of the approaches taken by CRT and BLM are perhaps being that way for the same reasons why people in Douglass's days so passionately celebrated Independence Day. They are doing so because they prefer self-worship to honest listening.
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