Frederick Douglass on the Fourth Of July

Why is the following speech by escaped slave, activist and intellectual Frederick Douglass still relevent today?

Because the "liberties" of American democracy exist only for the wealthly, not the poor. While we continue to fight a war in Iraq (to bring them democracy?) the Bill of Rights has been all but destroyed here. Public officials still insist that those interned for nearly a decade at Guantanamo are NOT worthy of basic human rights. Justice Scalia says torture is not "cruel and unusual" punishment, and many public officials agree with him. American companies export US union jobs to nations like Colombia and Indonesia, where labor rights activist are frequently arrested, totrtured and killed- but that won't stop us from buying Coca Cola and Nike sneakers! Americans are more interested in shopping than taking responsibility for what this country does to it's own people and those abroad who have no voice in our "Democracy".

Slavery still existsd in many ways; the wage-slaves in this nation, and those who are enslaved to our military and economic policies abroad.

So as you read this speech by Frederick Douglass, don't think to yourself: "This is all in the past, we're a free country now!" Because you will be no better than those who turned their heads and ignored the horror American Slavery before the Civil War, who went on with their lives and benefitted from the great atrocity this nation was built on.




"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 Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"
1852

Click here for the full speech