“ 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.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour”.
The passage that I choose to write about is from “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” by Fredrick Douglas. In the above passage the author is reminding us that the 4th of July has different meaning to African Americans. The author is recounting the horrifying actions that led to him not celebrating this day the way many Americans choose to celebrate it, but choosing to looking back and reflecting on the things that made the day what it is. In the passage the author states "your celebration is a sham". Frederick Douglas goes on to list all the feeling and actions on this day and says to us that those actions and feeling shows how "heartless" they are. He states to us and government that its not a day to forget the unjust that has been done to the fellow man and pretend that it did not happen. The way in which this passage relates to the theme of the lectures in class is that it hits upon subject such as civil liberties, the government, and political views.
I choose this passage because it gives me a chance to reflect on what the Fourth of July actually means. It's not just a day to celebrate and watch the fire works, its also a day to reflect on what went on during those time. To remember all the things our ancestors had to go through for us to be where we are today. I also choose this passage because it reminded me of one of our online lectures when you state "Republican majority House of Representatives began their session by reading out the Constitution, however they omitted these controversial passages".
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