America the Beautiful, America the Cruel
Lawrence Ross
Image: iStock
The Fourth of July, or the Fourth of You Lie as we black folks like to call it, is here again. And we’ll be inundated with bold-faced lies about American exceptionalism. You’ll hear it from television commentators. From politicians. From dudes wearing a red, white and blue t-shirt…made in China.
They’ll talk about how we’re a country that believes in democracy, just as the United States Supreme Court decided last week to allow partisan gerrymandering to disempower minorities. Commentators will spout platitudes about the wisdom of the so-called Founding Fathers, even as they all benefited from creating a white supremacist society built on the backs of black men and women.
But the most egregious thing you’ll hear while scarfing down ribs and non-Becky prepared potato salad? That we’re better than what’s happening under the Trump administration. That Trump doesn’t represent the true America. That this current time is an aberration and abnormal. And to that, I say one word…
Bullshit.
This is not to say that America doesn’t do good things. We do. There’s a long list of good things we do, and I’m not gonna waste good column space recounting them. But it’s also important to note that America’s side hustle has always been cruelty, and when it comes to cruelty on this July 4, business is good in the hood.
As we celebrate our founding, never forget that desperate Honduran, Guatemalan and El Salvadorian undocumented immigrants who yearn to be free from the violence and economic depravity in their own lands, are being held in cages. By America. The same America that once held enslaved Africans in cages.
Read More: https://www.theroot.com/america-the-beautiful-america-the-cruel-1836086688
Well worth the read. Our past and our present.
" I love what this country called American can be, just not what it is right now. And right now, it’s more America the Cruel than America the Beautiful. And that’s nothing to celebrate."
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