For as long as the power and splendor of the United States exist in the national cognition, the US has been associated with the land of the free. People from throughout the world embody their definition of liberty and fulfillment in the image of America. Indeed, the very idea of the American dream as a manifestation of opportunity, success, and freedom implies that the US is a center for democracy, equality, and respect.
De facto, the premise of freedom and democracy works only if a person’s cultural heritage and values meet certain criteria. Such a condition, in this case, destroys the notion of democracy at its core. Thus, for many years, America has been the land of freedom exclusively for a certain number of social groups, whereas the rest of the population either assimilates or disappears from the utopian picture. Back in the 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political scientist, and historian wrote that “amongst the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more than the general equality of conditions” (1). Indeed, since the Declaration of Independence back in 1776, the American society has received a chance to create a new model of society not overwhelmed with the burden of historically established principles of social hierarchy and classism then-prevailing on the European continent.
However, despite being given a chance to a fresh start, Americans chose racial discrimination and cultural prejudice. De Tocqueville recalls that he was fascinated by the fact that even in a country as liberal as the US, there still were people affected by oppression and humiliation (366). Years later, the issue itself did not vanish but mutated in more elaborate and implicit forms. In his 1852 Independence Day speech, Frederick Douglass elaborated on the abyss between ethnic communities that poisoned the idea of equality. One of the opening lines in his monologue, “what have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?”, emphasizes this economic and socio-cultural gap through the author calling the Fourth of July “their” independence, alienating Black community from this process (“What to The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?” 1:32). Such rhetoric was repeated throughout the whole speech as an emotive means of drawing the line of inequality between ethnic communities.
Douglass’s speech can be summed up in the following phrase: “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine” (“What to The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?” 2:18). Indeed, the notion of independence was never the world that could be applied to the Black community. Even nowadays, while some people believe that the modern definition of equality has enhanced significantly, the gap of race has never been addressed to the extent it should have been. The idea of national remembrance of the US independence manifests the process of celebrating freedom from the occupants that took advantage of innocent peoples. At the same time, the US residents did the same to fellow Americans plainly because of their skin color.
The perfect understanding of what it felt like to be humiliated while humiliating others is what Douglass considered the epitome of hypocrisy. Hence, he rightfully thought that “the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed” (“What to The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?” 3:15). Such exposé, in his opinion, could become a starting point for the all-national rebellion and fight for a better life.
However, the author’s descendants are concerned that such emotional and powerful messages are mostly heard by the ones who recognized the scope of the issue even before listening to Douglass’s words (“What to The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?”). As a result, the ones guilty of perpetuating inequality are the ones who remain ignorant of this socio-political disaster. Indeed, even this example of not perceiving the message is an explicit manifestation of racial inequality fueled by the people’s failure to recognize and take the blame. For centuries, people have been blaming history and public figures for eternizing inequality, whereas they tend to ignore their daily contribution to this immortalization. Every time a woman on a public bus pulls her bag closer when she sees an African American young man, every time Black employees are the first ones to be rejected during a job interview, and every time people presume Black residents to have a criminal past, the issue of inequality becomes one step closer to being irreversible.
Hence, Douglass’s speech on inequality performed during the celebration of American independence has a powerful symbolic meaning behind it. It is typical for American society to find pride in everything they do to justify the immense amount of cruelty it “bestows upon” some US residents. For many years, democracy, the concept of giving power to people, has been used to make privileged people more powerful than others, and the hierarchy that emerged from such a process finds more and more secretive ways into exercising its power over racial minorities across the US. For this reason, there is a call to action that encourages people the reconsider their perception of freedom and equality across the nation.
Works Cited
De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America: Volume I & II. Harper Collins Publishers, 2014.
“What to The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?” YouTube, uploaded by NPR, 2020, Web.