This morning, I woke up and read Fredrick Douglass’s searing indictment of U.S. hypocrisy: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” In the aftermath of Dobbs. V. Jackson and with the last January 6th Panel hearing emphasizing just how close Donald Trump’s coup attempt came to fruition, Douglass seems eerily close to speaking from the present. For all the rhetoric of freedom and equality that typically attends this day, it is blatantly obvious how much freedom and equality are in question—and for many have never been realized in the first place.
The Fourth of July in a Season of Reaction
The Fourth of July in a Season of Reaction
The Fourth of July in a Season of Reaction
This morning, I woke up and read Fredrick Douglass’s searing indictment of U.S. hypocrisy: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” In the aftermath of Dobbs. V. Jackson and with the last January 6th Panel hearing emphasizing just how close Donald Trump’s coup attempt came to fruition, Douglass seems eerily close to speaking from the present. For all the rhetoric of freedom and equality that typically attends this day, it is blatantly obvious how much freedom and equality are in question—and for many have never been realized in the first place.