At the end of this week, people across the country will gather in parks, on roofs and in backyard grills, which to celebrate the holiday honored to establish the US. They will be less and less recognized through a modern lens to oppose an America on the streets, on the plaza and in front of the monuments.
Rapid stripping of rights, terrorizing marginalized communities, to increase unconscious wealth inequalities and hatred and division, this opportunity forces both actions that gave birth to our nation to respect the revolution.
Black Americans’, our relationship for this annual holiday has always been frightening. In 1852, after the declaration of independence, almost a century was signed, Frederick Douglas asked famous, “What is the fourth of slave July?”His reply bare the hypocrisy of a nation that celebrated freedom, while millions of people were slaves.
“I’m not involved in the pilgrimage of a fantastic anniversary!” Douglas said. “Your high freedom only reveals the irreversible distance between us. … This fourth July is yours, not mine. You can be happy, I should mourn.”
That tension still echoes today. We worship ideals of freedom and equality, even we struggle to face ways that remain incomplete to those promises. And, nevertheless, black Americans continue to invest in an US with no promise made returns.
That selfless commitment – to serve a country that has often cheated us – is characterized by our entire existence. And it has enabled us to change a country on the basis of loot towards a northern star of equality.
But our journey towards that North Star is anything but linear. This year, as we mark a revolution, we stand on the prefix of another.
Unlike the revolution 249 years ago, the disquestion is no longer from an external threat, but from within – an internal battle on the identity of America that has been going on since we took our first incomplete step towards true democracy in passing the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Each American revolution has been motivated by re -running, the need to close the difference from who we claim and who are we really. The founders declared equality by preserving slavery. A century later, we maintained civil rights in the law, maintaining the systems that continued black Americans for second -class citizenship.
Today we face another moment of necessary changes.
The current crisis stems from America’s inability to imagine itself beyond the mirror of its past – a nation defined by racial hierarchy and white cultural dominance. Rapid erosion of norms, rights and security we are seeing, not just a political change; It is a backlash against our country’s unavoidable demographic and cultural development.
And while that backlash can suddenly and some people feel shocked, for black Americans, who live under the systems of harassment since coming to these shore, this is surprising. We seem alarm for generations.
Revolutionary changes are required to achieve these goals amidst the US acute identity crisis. Not a war of arms, but a radical reunion that we are, what we give importance and how we share space and power. And every part of society plays an important role.
Civil society organizations serve as an important lifeline for permanent sites of resistance against weak communities and oppression. We should support and protect them from the increasing attacks from the Trump administration.
Our courts, including the Supreme Court, should recover their role as constitutional parents rather than the promoters of uncontrolled executive power. It should start with the Supreme Court, which reverses his misguided President’s immunity’s decision.
The professional community should recognize that the tireless attacks on the rule of law and the beneficial principles of equity, inclusion and accession will eventually unstable global economy systems, which will harm all our economies in this process.
The Congress should use its full constitutional powers – not only through monitoring, but also through accountability, in which in which impeachment, as warrant. It has done this before and it should be ready to do so again.
And white Americans should do the same as black people have done for centuries: believe in America’s capacity.
This requires the reality of changing demographics and an honest with a confident belief in constitutional democracy that defines and separates us. It demands hard work to fuel the abundance rather than the mentality of deficiency.
The oppressed groups have long implemented these beliefs to ensure that being a minority has not justified subjugation, even though it was a living history.
The goal of organizations like Mera is never to repeat the previous hierarchies with new groups in power. Instead, we work to create a new social system – a multi -level democracy where power is shared, dignity is sacred and prosperity is standard – for all.
There is no group discount of any institution, region or people at this moment. What we call America home should be ready to develop continuously and boldly, as a nation is inseparable with freedom and justice for all.
Revolution is a terrible word for some, but the truth is that since 1776, we have passed through many. A conference in Seneka. A bridge in Selma. Once in Greenwich village.
And when they are every turbulent and painful, we have come out of society on the other side, more only.
As in the past, the revolutionary change can once again serve us well, but only if we move together, diverse, instead of opposing multinational democracy, embrace instead of opposing which we are struggling to achieve.
The question before us is not whether America will change – it will happen. The question is whether we will have adequate guidance to accept their intense failures, which will change to a more entire union or whether we will allow us to overcome the fear of Trump administration, which is to drive us backward and further.
At the end of this week, let’s choose to honor the revolutionary spirit that has always been the biggest strength of America-not sticking to the past, but by a new phase of nation-building that pushes us to the future, which we have not yet achieved: an America is great for all.
Jnai Nelson’s Chairman-Director is a consultantNaacp legal defense fund,
