4th of July Musings: I Am Angry and Crying! (Originally written in July 2020) by Melony McGant.
Beautiful People,
Take a moment to Breathe Deeply and Exhale Slowly Ten Times.
Will you listen to me with your heart? Please don't try to intellectualize my pain. All of My Ancestors Live In Me. I Am Angry and Crying America.
In the United States you celebrate the 4th of July, Independence Day. Have you forgotten that you are living on a land stolen from Native Americans benefited by enslaved labor?
You called this a Land of Opportunity. Yes it was an opportunity for you to steal the land of the Cherokee, Hopi, Navajo, Pequot and all the Indigenous Tribes that were already here.
They offered you hospitality and food. You shared liquor and smallpox blankets, raped their women, tried to enslave them but that didn't work so you fought wars with your guns, pillaged their villages, and killed their men.
Feeling that your whiteness was superior you created laws and reservations for containment.
Just as you had done in Africa and other parts of the World, you brought your christian missionaries and tried to convert them as you stole their children, created boarding schools and tried to strip them of their culture and language.
At the same time you had been exploring Africa and used your trinkets and guns to buy a labor force for your New Land of Opportunity. My holocaust is the the memory of the Middle Passage.
For hundreds of years you enslaved me for economic gain. You forbade me from using my language. I plowed your fields, nursed your children, cooked your meals, cleaned, built and managed your opulent homes, your roads and cities.
In return you beat and whipped me, raped me, lynched me and sold my family. Miscegenation became your fancy. "If you white you right. If you yellow you mellow, if you brown stick around. If you black, git back." Divide and Conquer Was Your Way.
In your United States Constitution you wrote #FreedomAndJusticeforAll but you used colonialization, exploitation, subjugation and wrote that Black People were only 3/5ths of a man.
Though we have had many White Allies, and some progress was made; there were never enough of these good people to make you change.
Your separate and unequal Jim Crow laws were designed with malice, hatred and fear.
And when we excelled and prospered through our genius; you rioted, murdered us and destroyed our communities. Tulsa, Oklahoma and Rosewood, Florida to name just two.
Though I have fought your wars, you still disavow and discriminate against me. Greed and hatred permeates modern society through #SystemicRacism.
Some of you believe your #WhitePrivilege affords you the right to disregard the many contributions of my ancestors. Your #slavepatrols are hidden in some of today's police officers and an #unequaljusticesystem.
Many still say Reparations or Official Apologies Are Not Needed. Yet the sins and trauma live in the DNA of today's citizens.
America, do the lives of Medgar Evers, James Merideth, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner and the countless others murdered by the KKK and white supremists mean nothing?
In this age of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the #PlagueOfRacism is being revisited and has become even more exposed. You Are Still Killing Us.
We watched #GeorgeFloyd cry out for his Mother in Heaven as a white police officer held his knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Also murdered #AmaudArbry #BreonnaTaylor and So Many, Many Others. I cry tears of despair and say #BlackLivesMatter.
Some of you say you mourn with me but will say only all lives matter; when if that were true, I would be living in a just society.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said...
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenges and controversy."
#SystemicRacism flourishes as immigrant children and their parents are being separated and locked in over crowded cages reminicent of slavery and internment camps.
America, you have sent away our jobs, robbed us of our life savings or homes and taken away our privacy, our right to assemble, our free speech, our healthcare, our access to airwaves....
And through suppression, Our Right to VOTE!
America, YOU and Deceitful Progress have used the Nation's Courts to discriminate against Citizens, to create monopolies for Robber Barons, to Steal and Control OUR Nation.
And Stop Lying America.
Almost 50 percent of this nation is living in poverty with no opportunity to grow and prosper.
Yes, you have turned neighbor against neighbor and used technology to bicker and create new wars and #PrisonsForProfit when you SHOULD BE Nurturing the Brilliance, the Creativity, the Genius and the Hope of ALL of Our Children.
These horrific actions are sanctioned by a president who lost by a majority vote but won by the Electoral College established in the days of slavery when I was not considered as fully human. Your president #45 appears to promote hate, constantly lies and instills fear.
Yes. All of My Ancestors Live In Me. I Am Angry but No Longer Crying America...because today many of your elders and children of all races have #Awakened and are Allies.
Now WE Are Angry. We choose not to perpetuate your sins, your gluttony and hatred. Together we hold the dream of a cherished democracy that We Will Build.
We know that #BlackLivesMatter is a rallying cry for All People Who Want Good Change and believe that #AllLivesMatter.
We are determined to have a country with equal opportunity, true justice, quality education, integrity, good jobs, healthcare, safe loving communities, environments that nurture our children, healing, freedom and respect for All the People.
It Is a New Day America. We Are Many. No Longer Will We Accept Your Racism, Classism, Xenophobia or Your Redlining, Gerrymandering and Voter Suppression.
Together We Will Register and Vote in Every Election. We Will Challenge Injustice Everywhere. We Will Change the Landscape of Inequity and Protect Our Fragile Environment with Consistent Good Efforts, Good Purpose, Healing, Hope, Integrity and Love.
And We the Citizens Will WIN!
Always, Melony 💕🦋💕
aka Miss Mellie Rainbow🌈
Photo Credit: (c) Time Magazine 2020 Painting (c) by Charly Palmer (Photograph by Travis Grissom)
