There’s a thin line between freedom and chaos.
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I made a trip to the store and bought some fireworks. Right out front of the local market, stood a seasonal station for the purpose of catering to those that need to feel free. Free to set off pseudo explosives and not be reprimanded. Free to play with fire and not get burned. Free to act a fool and drink till drunk. Just remember. There’s a thin line between freedom and chaos.
It’s also a thin line between love and hate. I love the holidays. I hate the origins and history of the holidays. Not one US holiday has a pretty history. Fourth of July: black people were still slaves at the time the country was running around all happy and excited about being free. The slave masters had a celebration and the slave asked. ‘Is I free, too. Massa?’ The slave master answered the slave. ‘No boy. This ain’t about you. Now go on and fetch me and Missy something cold to drink.’
This ain’t about you? But the country is celebrating freedom.
Oh wait. I get it. The country was celebrating a different freedom because the country was in a different position than us black folk.
This is why, today, July 4, 2016, I realize the irony of this whole thing. Even though I have read and studied about America history and slavery and holidays and such. Not until today did it truly resonate with me how this ain’t about me.
Makes me think of Roots and every other slave story fed to us via Big Dog Media. Some of us black people love this country so much, not only do we practice all out coonery by congratulating this country for being free for this long. But, we also advocate for the ‘migration’ back to Africa as a solution to problems we face here in the US. Really?
This ain’t about you? But the country is celebrating freedom. Oh wait. I get it. The country was celebrating a different freedom because the country was in a different position than us black folk.
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I literally just read a post advocating the return to Africa or somewhere else, other than the US, by one of my Facebook friends. Not just a Facebook friend, this person was a friend in ‘real life.’ Understand what I’m saying? Was. Past tense. I’ve since, removed that ignorance from my list. I’m all for freedom of speech. You just wont be free to spew your ignorant views all over my social media presence like that.
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Now. Back to this Roots issue. We always running off to the theaters to catch the newest slave movie that drops. We are quick to support the likes of films that showcase, as entertainment, what our fore fathers and mothers went through. Like we are supposed to forgive and forget. Then those movies always, nowadays, cast the white villains as actual people and characters, who we end up foolishly falling for and sometimes rooting for. Remember Django? The new Roots? What were your feelings about that historical interpretation of white people?
Remember learning about racism. Remember learning about Jim Crow laws. Segregation. White only restaurants. Colored only fountains. The American school systems will have a person believe that blacks beginning in this world, was at slavery. History in schools never taught that we had a beginning before America. Just one of the many sneaky ways America keeps racism alive. And to continue to stay alive as they wish, they make movies like Roots, Djano, Twelve Years A Slave.
Yes it is true. Ever since we were forced to come to this country and build it for others, we have been persecuted and subject to racism. But that isn’t our beginning, nor is that the beginning for racism as a whole.
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Racism is not just a black and white thing. Racism is a cancer that affects all cultures. It used to be that only whites disliked blacks and they even felt superior to blacks. Because whites have traveled all over this globe, terrorizing and colonizing the many different races of people. Whites have had a strong influence on racism. It used to be that only whites disliked blacks. But the more whites took over lands and such, the more racism became a problem. The whites started to feel superior over more than just blacks.
When I speak of whites and racism, as I do, I’m not being racist. I’m not being anti-white or pro-black. I’m being anti-establishment. Anti-devilishment. It’s not reverse racism I speak of. Because in all actuality, the literal meaning of reverse racism would be a person believing members of his race have ways and actions inferior to other races. It wouldn’t be a black man speaking out against the ways and actions forced against him by this country. No. It wouldn’t be that.
‘What am I even celebrating?’ ‘My people were still slaves the first Fourth of July celebration. What freedom am I really overjoyed for?’
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So it sure wouldn’t be me pointing out blacks celebrating the 4th of July really being blacks practicing more coonery than a little bit. Shucking and jiving to the false sound of freedom ringing. Guess this is why I had the revelation I did. I sat at home, alone in my four cornered room staring at fireworks. Then I thought to myself. ‘What am I even celebrating?’ ‘My people were still slaves the first Fourth of July celebration. What freedom am I really overjoyed for?’ Then I did some soul searching and some entail reorganizing. I refuse to go out and celebrate a date which represents the freedom of the very people who kept freedom from my fore fathers and mothers.
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I threw all my fireworks in the trash. After spending some time alone with myself, I’ve come to the realization that that is not what I want to celebrate. Freedom to me is being able to think when and about what I very well please. I don’t want television telling me how to vision life. I want to have control over those thoughts. That’s freedom, to me. I could do like the churches of old, and take the very same holiday and make it my own. Mark it day of revelations instead of July 4th..
But, that would be hypocritical. I’m no hypocrite. I’m not going to do what they have done to each and every holiday in the US. No, I’m not.
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