"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. "
This quote from Frederick Douglas,an African american who was addressing a mass of people during the independence day celebration of United States of America.In his sermon, the preaches of the injustice and inequality in the country.For a country that pushes the agenda of equality and democracy to the world,its very hypocritical on its citizens.he expresses that the fourth of July is meaningless to the men and women who are oppressed by the same people who enjoying the day of celebration.
This quote caught my attention because Fredrick Douglass unveils the hypocrisy of American slavery. He is candid in how any celebration in the name of liberty, equality, triumph over tyranny is offensive to every individual who has been denied these most basic rights. He took this opportunity to hold a mirror up to the U.S and its practices and reveal how they contradict the very ideals this nation was built on.many African Americans are treated with disdain.since abolishing slavery there have been no reparations to even help ease the pain of torture but we celebrate independence with joy and merry.
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