why i no longer celebrate the 4th of july

*gasp*

"cover your eyes! cover your ears! such blasphemy is coming from her lips! she doesn't celebrate the 4th of july?!!"

nope. and it's quite simple. scratch that - rarely are things simple. but here it is:

the concept of the 4th of july - the declaration of independence - was that americans wanted to be 'free' from the british. they wanted to have their own country. yet, they funny piece of paper called the declaration of independence withheld freedom from african americans. what hypocrisy! these white men (and white women, though no women wrote the declaration) wanted their own freedom and yet they denied freedom to other human beings! in fact, the constitution (article 1, section 2) didn't even acknowledge african americans as human beings - instead they labeled them as 3/5ths of a human. 3-motherfucking-5ths!

i find it interesting that they labeled them as 3/5ths, considering so many of them slept w/ their "3/5ths" slaves. i wonder what thomas jefferson - one of the creators of the declaration and constitution - thought of his mistress, sally hemmings. did he consider her 3/5ths? if so, what were the other 2/5ths? animal? would that mean that he and the other white men who slept with their slaves were committing beastiality? and what did they consider children that they created with their slaves? were they 4/5ths?

regardless, it's a fucked up, hypocritical system and, being african american myself, i'm certainly not going to celebrate a holiday that seeks freedom for some people while keeping others enslaved.