The always controversial, but sometimes culturally poignant rapper Azealia Banks gave Candance Owens a piece of her mind during Juneteenth. This was after Owens, a Black Republican, called the holiday “lame” and a form of segregation.
So Banks dragged her in the form of a Black history lesson.
Owens said that instead of Juneteenth, she would only be celebrating July 4th. Banks then had to remind Owens that if she had been alive on July 4th, 1776, she would have been a miserable, enslaved person, brutalized by white overseers!
She’s not the first person to speak the truth about the dark relationship between Black Americans and July 4th.
In Frederick Douglass’ speech “What, To The Slave, Is Fourth Of July,” he calls white people hypocrites for celebrating a day of freedom with slaves in their backyard.
James Baldwin also criticized the “freedom” we celebrate on Independence Day. “Any honest examination of [our lives] proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom,” he wrote. Anyone who loves the United States and believes in “freedom” needs to take a “hard look at himself,” he argued.
Banks is not the first to call out the problematic relationship between Black Americans and “Independence Day.” Acknowledging our history is crucial – because that education will keep us grounded and clear-eyed as we seek our liberation.