[ The problem wasn’t the vision of the country we remember on
this day. The fault lay in the fact that some got left out. Douglass
had the audacity to believe that Americas story was not finished until
the country kept all her promises. ]
[[link removed]]
FREDERICK DOUGLASS KNEW WHAT FALSE PATRIOTISM WAS
[[link removed]]
Esau McCaulley
July 3, 2023
New York Times
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
_ The problem wasn’t the vision of the country we remember on this
day. The fault lay in the fact that some got left out. Douglass had
the audacity to believe that America's story was not finished until
the country kept all her promises. _
, Illustration by Akshita Chandra/The New York Times
In 1852 Frederick Douglass delivered what may be his most famous
address, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
[[link removed]] This
time of year, quotations from the speech dart around Black social
media as a subtle pushback on uncomplicated celebrations of American
independence.
Douglass wondered what the enslaved might say if they were called from
the plantations to reflect on themes of liberty, justice and equality.
How might their words differ from the prose of the free orators
normally asked to comment on American ideals? There is a revolution in
the reorientation of perspective, when the powerless are given space
to speak. That hasn’t changed.
On Independence Day, what would those who lost loved ones in
the Buffalo mass shooting
[[link removed]] have
to say about justice in America? If we summoned Black women, who
disproportionally experience death and trauma
[[link removed]] during
childbirth, to reflect on the inalienable right to life, what hard
truths might we hear about their fears for themselves and their unborn
children? What musings about liberty could we expect from those who
endure unjust sentencing
[[link removed]] or
are pulled over for driving while Black
[[link removed]]?
Our nation’s problems and the litany of lingering injustices are not
unknown to us, but there is a certain pressure to put our complaints
aside around this holiday in particular. On the Fourth of July we are
encouraged to unfurl our flags, belt out a rendition of “God Bless
America” and grill burgers in humble gratitude.
Reflecting on the demand for patriotism, Douglass said “As a people,
Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their
own favor. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the
reputation of Americans will be found by Americans.”
Our country wants a certain version of the American story told and
will laud anyone willing to tell it. But uncritical celebration is a
limited and false definition of patriotism. Instead, recounting the
full story of America and asking it to be better than it is can be an
expression of love.
Douglass challenged the idea that certain truths should be overlooked.
He composed this speech in the aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Act of
1850, which required all escaped slaves to be returned to their
enslavers. He said this act of Congress turned the nation into a
“hunting ground for men” and marred the whole Republic because
“your lawmakers have commanded all good citizens to engage in this
hellish sport.”
Douglass put his protest into conversation with the ideals celebrated
on the Fourth. He recognized that the founding fathers were “great
men” who “staked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred
honor on the cause of their country.”
The problem wasn’t the vision of the country we remember on this
day. The fault lay in the fact that some got left out.
Douglass had the audacity to believe that America's story was not
finished until the country kept all her promises. There is a hidden
affection in the stinging words of rebuke.
Over 100 years later, in his “I Have a Dream”
[[link removed]] speech,
the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would echo Douglass: “When the
architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note
was a promise that all men — yes, Black men as well as white men —
would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted
on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are
concerned.”
Today if Americans protest systemic injustice or resist the efforts to
remove the history of racial oppression from school curriculum, it is
the demonstrators, not those invested in intentional forgetting, who
some people deem anti-American.
Douglass’s patriotism was more than resistance. In the early years
of the Civil War, he saw signs of unity and hope. In 1862 he
delivered another July Fourth speech
[[link removed]].
As David Blight notes in his biography
[[link removed]] of
Douglass, the orator’s language underwent a change from 1852 to
1862.
A decade prior, Douglass, speaking to white Americans, referred to the
founders as “your fathers.” Douglass and other Black Americans
were outsiders. In 1862, he took ownership of them, including African
Americans in the grand narrative of American history. The “you” of
the American Revolution and its principles became a “we” during
the battle against the Confederacy. Speaking of the Union effort in
the Civil War, he said, “We are only continuing the tremendous
struggle, which your fathers and my fathers began 86 years ago.”
Because white Americans had been willing to suffer for Black freedom
during the Civil War, we were starting to live up to the idea that all
men were created equal.
He understood that no great thing could be had without genuine effort
and pain, and that holds true today. One cannot simply read more Black
literature after violent and public deaths of African Americans. We
have to do the hard work of reforming policing, undoing
gerrymandered voting districts
[[link removed]] and
eliminating myths about differences
[[link removed]] between Black
and white people.
On Independence Day in 1875, Douglass took to the podium a third time.
Echoing his first speech, he asked what Black people had to do with
the Fourth of July. Now, years after the Civil War, Black people’s
place in the American narrative was an established fact: “Colored
people have had something to do with almost everything of vital
importance in the life and progress of this great country.”
I don’t think we have to be proud of everything this country has
done to be proud of our progress despite unrelenting opposition. The
saga of Black people in America is not just a tragedy; it is also a
triumph.
Douglass recognized that his version of the American story was not
often recounted. So he called for a Black press to rise up and make it
known. America had to face the truth and only those who had endured
its hypocrisies but still maintained some hope had the perspective to
tell it.
Douglass expanded the meaning of American patriotism. Rather than
focusing on the gratitude the country demanded of us, he reminded the
nation what it still owed its populace. The nation could not request
songs of praise without including Black accomplishments in its lyrics.
It could not laud the founders of this nation without following their
example by continuing to fight for justice for all.
Our national tendency to see only the best of America was standing in
the way of truly becoming great. Douglass thought enough of this
country to tell it the truth. We would be better off if more of us did
the same.
_Esau McCaulley (@esaumccaulley [[link removed]])
is a contributing Opinion writer and an assistant professor of New
Testament at Wheaton College. He is the author of “How Far to the
Promised Land: One Black Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the
American South
[[link removed]] and“Reading
While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise
in Hope [[link removed]].” He lives
in Wheaton, Ill., with his wife and four children. _
* Fourth of July
[[link removed]]
* Black History facts
[[link removed]]
* misinformation
[[link removed]]
* Frederick Douglass
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]
INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT
Submit via web
[[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]
Twitter [[link removed]]
Facebook [[link removed]]
[link removed]
To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]
