(upbeat music) - Who Jumbo dear community and welcome to Espresso Talk Today. I'm Amma Robin, the host of this great and groundbreaking show where we confront the chaos of living black in predominantly white spaces. I'm having my kurkuma cinnamon pepper coffee today for this uncommon show. Today, we are confronting a deep and personal subject, American Independence Day. As a black American, this day holds a complicated and painful history and feeling. Once a symbol of freedom and celebration, it now represents a strong reminder of the hypocrisy and the broken promises that still plague our country. Today, we are gonna dive deep into why I and many, many other people loathe Independence Day and why this holiday is not ours to celebrate. Not my words, but I embrace them anyway. I'm gonna tell you why in just a minute. Before we dive in, hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. And if you're feeling this show, share it with your fam, your crew, your circle, your allies, everyone in your community. Now, grab that espresso or tea. Tea drinkers are always welcome here too and close that door behind you. We're gonna get deep and we're gonna get real. And I hope that y'all are ready for this. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Aquaba, welcome. My dear brothers and sisters and my beloved gender neutral and gender nonconforming folks, I am so glad that you are here today. For many people, this is a special day, but not for me. I'm gonna get real with you though. I used to love July 4th. I used to love the Independence Day holiday. And not just for the barbecues and the flags and the fireworks, those are all fun, but because I believe in freedom and independence. And I believed in the founders telling the British to put the taxes where the sun doesn't fit. But also, I loved the idea of ordinary people fighting the empire for their freedom. It really sounds great, doesn't it? It is, but unfortunately it is not the end of the story. I'm all grown up now and I've learned more of a story. And now I have my own ideas about American Independence Day. And I can sum it all up in one word, hypocrisy. Let's begin by recalling though, the powerful words of Frederick Douglass. He was one of the greatest orders, thinkers and abolitionists in not just American history. I'm gonna say in world history. In his iconic speech, "What to the Slave" is your 4th of July that he delivered on July 5th in 1852. Mr. Douglass laid bare the hypocrisy of a nation celebrating freedom while millions of black people remained enslaved. And while the thought of abolishing slavery was completely unrealistic and not popular. Let's listen to a short excerpt of Mr. Douglass's speech read by Ben Copeland. - I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed and common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems where inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct and let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes towering up to heaven were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin. I can today take up the plaintiff lament of appealed and woe smitten people. Asante Sana for this reading, Ben. Yes, Frederick Douglass said, "This 4th of July is yours, not mine. "You may rejoice, I must mourn." And he did mourn. I still mourn. Though slavery has been abolished, not so long ago, the systemic issues Mr. Douglass highlighted still resonate today. Freedom was guaranteed for everyone. Equality was promised. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was the goal, but not for us, not for black people and other groups too. What we received was far from it. We recently celebrated Juneteenth or in the Black American Emancipation Day. We were emancipated on that day, but I continue to say emancipation is not liberation. I used to get misty when I was younger when I read the Declaration of Independence. And yes, I did read it as a young person many times. It changed everything. It changed how people related to their government. It announced the full humanity of the individual. It announced that the people individually and collectively are important and powerful. In fact, they're more important than the government. It announced that the government existed for the people, not vice versa. Before all of this, the people were there for the government and everybody thought that this was the right thing, that this was normal, that the people were there to serve the king and to serve the government. But the Declaration of Independence said, oh no, no, no, no, the government is there for the people. And that changed the whole relationship. Are you getting misty? I have to admit, okay, I think I'm even getting misty again, because these are beautiful words. Let's hear them. Just a preamble because it's a pretty long document. Let's hear them. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Okay, I bet you're getting misty now, 'cause they are beautiful words. Then I remember that other word I just mentioned. Hypocrisy. Let's take our first breather break here. This gives us all a chance to breathe for a minute, and then we can dive deeper. I think it's good time to relax and to clear our minds. Breathing helps with that. I'm gonna see you in a minute, and y'all know that I love this song. - Anything is possible. - Turn me up and have fun. Yeah. ♪ Trying to get a lot of dough ♪ ♪ And dirt through all the obstacles ♪ ♪ 'Cause anything is possible, yeah ♪ ♪ With my eyes ♪ ♪ Oh man, I got a lot of dough ♪ ♪ Stack that bread and vomit nose ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, yeah ♪ ♪ Trying to get a lot of dough ♪ ♪ And dirt through all the obstacles ♪ ♪ 'Cause anything is possible, all right ♪ ♪ Hey, oh man, I got a lot of dough ♪ ♪ Stack that bread and vomit ♪ - I'm back. I hope that you took some time to breathe. I did, and that always makes a difference for me. Asante Sanoff has taken a round. Let's get to it. As a black woman living in the chaos of white society, I have learned, I've heard, the stories of my ancestors being denied recognition as a human being, and I've heard the stories of how black people have fought for and died for every right that we had, that we have. Yet, I have seen in my lifetime how these rights are not even close to unalienable. That's a big word, huh? Unalienable. They have been stripped away from us. I'm gonna get a specific in a minute about that. As a lawyer, a human rights activist, and a human being, I believed in the Constitution. Now I've seen how the rights and protections and the constitutions have also been stripped away. The Constitution, the very document that should protect us and all citizens, all human beings, has often been weaponized against black people. The promises of equal protection under the law, voting rights, due process, and recognition of our full humanity have been repeatedly broken. Actually, if you look really closely, there is no constitutional right to vote. There's just the assumption that everything a democracy relies on a one person, one vote kind of situation, but there is no actual constitutional right to vote. Some of the states have it, but at the federal level, it does not exist. And actually this came forward from justice that horrible, let me just add that in, horrible justice Scalia, back in the case of, what was it, back in 2001, of Bush v. Gore, but I digress. Let us talk about the ongoing struggles that we as black people still face. Despite the end of slavery, we have had to fight for every right that was guaranteed or assumed in the constitution. We have to fight for every right that we have, no matter where it was found. It's our rights that we know that we have as human beings. The civil rights movement of the 1960s was a battle for basic human rights that most rights should have been Irish from the start, but there were people, a lot of them, who believed that we shouldn't have those rights. Imagine going out and deciding that another person doesn't have the right to drink water at this fountain or to have this job or to marry the person they wanna marry. Yes, we're still fighting that one, right? Even then though, even back then, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act were hard won victories that were constantly under threat. And in fact, in 2013, the Voting Rights Act was completely gutted by the Supreme Court. It has now allowed states to engage in gerrymandering, voter dilution schemes, voter flipping schemes, it's been, you vote for one person and it comes up as another. You know, a voter ID, or ID laws that strip away our right to vote, if your name doesn't fit exactly perfect, you know, on your ID as it does on your ballot, you can't vote. And I'm telling you, look, I'm voting here in Europe, that doesn't happen, that does not need to happen. And it's allowed localities and states to engage in other schemes, you know, like establishing, there's a single voting poll to serve thousands of people on election day, which means that people stand in line for hours and hours and hours. This does not happen in other real democracies. This has made voting nearly impossible for a huge segment of the population, particularly black people. And this happens in nearly every single election. You know, remember when the election, when Stacey Abrams was competing against Brian Kemp for governor of Georgia, that was actually one, if you dissect that one, you know, Brian Kemp ultimately, let's, I don't know if he won, well, he did win. I don't know if I wanna say it that way though, but he became the governor. And that was such a reprehensible election that was set up and the things he did were so disgusting that undermined any kind of thought of it being a free and fair election. But the state and this country allowed it to happen and they accepted it. Frederick Douglass is right, this holiday is yours to celebrate, not mine. You may rejoice, but I mourn. Consider the denial of equal protection under the law. Police brutality and racial profiling are stark reminders that our lives are still not valued equally. Mass incarceration, prisoner work programs akin to chain gains are still alive and well. Affirmative action, though, is dead. Hundreds of black people are killed every year by police and no one is held accountable. And the Congress did not even pass the police reform bill after the murder of George Floyd. The legal system which is supposed to be a source of justice is really just a source of terror, hostility and brutality for us. Hmm, yep, this is why I mourn. It's important to understand the roots of these issues by examining the founding fathers themselves, the founders. We know that many of them, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, owned black people. They raped black people. They beat, killed, and tortured black people. The very foundation of this country was built on the backs of enslaved Africans. And also, we know about the native population, how it was decimated and didn't stop once they arrived. It continued for hundreds of years and continues today. The Declaration of Independence, though, declared that all men are created equal, yet the principle was not applied and was not meant to apply to black people. This glaring contradiction underscores the deep-seated issues that continue to affect us. How can I get misty about reading that? After I learned that it was never supposed to apply to me or anyone who looked like me. But, you know, and I don't accept how that this was just, that was just how it was back then. No, I don't, and neither should you. But what are we accepting right now today as we celebrate America's Independence Day? We are accepting all of those injustices, those inequalities, and those outrages that I just mentioned a minute ago. I'm not accepting them anymore, not for one more second. And like Frederick Douglass, this is my day to mourn. And tomorrow's my day to get back to work fighting and announcing these hypocrisies, fighting these injustices, end up lifting black people everywhere. Now, despite these adversities, we have contributed a lot to this country. You know, from building the nation's infrastructure, infrastructure, to driving its culture and the innovations and inventions, our impact is undeniable, although many people do try to deny it. We have fought for this country in every single war. We've excelled in every field and enriched American culture and the economy and life in countless ways. Our resilience and strength have shaped America into what it is today. It would be a whole lot better if others were trying to tear it down. What we've done has uplifted it, but America is being attacked from within and that's what is causing a lot of the problems today. As I've discussed in many previous episodes, we have made a way out of no way. And as we have thrived, so has this country, even while making us fight for everything that is routinely handed to white people. All right, look, I'm not a bad person. I'm not an angry person. You might want to roll your eyes and just say that I'm an angry black woman or that I'm ungrateful or that I should just learn to forgive. I can tell you that I'm not grateful for racism or white supremacist structures or systems that continue to attack black people. I'm not grateful for the inferiorization that's been implanted in me and reinforced by society. I am angry, but I'm not a stereotype. As I said, I used to love Independence Day. So why do I now loathe this day? If you haven't noticed already then, because it represents a celebration of freedoms that were never meant for me, for us. It's a painful reminder of promises unkept and rights ungranted. How can we celebrate a day that symbolizes liberty when we're still fighting for our own basic human rights? We haven't received the reparations, we were promised. Yes, I said the R word, reparations. We are owed reparations today and forever. The wealth gap, educational disparities, systemic inequalities are continuing legacies of slavery that remain unaddressed, undiscussed, unrepaired. The health crisis caused by racism is a legacy of slavery in which black people were experimented on and denied basic care and actually tortured. The quote unquote slave patrols still run the streets in the form of police who are bias, racist and militarized. Black communities have been destroyed. The people removed or massacred. Communities have been deliberately under resourced, poisoned and flooded with toxins and undernourished. Have you ever lived in a food desert? Well, have you ever tried to find a bank in a black community? That communities are routinely underbanked. And when we fight back against injustice, we're punished. When we work hard and build strong businesses, we're treated with hostility. Independence Day is a reminder of the liberation that we deserve, but have never received. Emancipation is not liberation. This is your day to celebrate, not mine. You can rejoice, I must mourn. Let's take another breather break here. It's breathe, think, stretch, do push-ups, grab some coffee or tea. Whatever speaks to your soul. This is some great stuff, but we all need a short break. Then we're gonna talk about alternatives to the July 4th holiday. I will see you in a minute. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Yeah, tryna get a lot of dough ♪ ♪ And dirt through all the obstacles ♪ ♪ 'Cause anything is possible, yeah ♪ ♪ With my hat ♪ ♪ Oh man, I got a lot of dough ♪ ♪ Stack that bread and vomit nose ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, yeah ♪ ♪ Tryna get a lot of dough ♪ ♪ Dirt through all the obstacles ♪ ♪ 'Cause anything is possible, all right, hey ♪ ♪ Oh man, I got a lot of dough ♪ ♪ Stack that bread and balls ♪ Asante's son of her staying with me. I wasn't sure if I was gonna lose some people when I mentioned alternatives to celebrating July 4th. So, you must be some courageous, creative, and interesting, interested people. So thank you for being here, and let's get to it. So what can we do instead of buying into the myth of Independence Day? For me, it always begins with awareness. We can become aware and educate ourselves and our communities about our true history. Understanding our past is crucial to reshaping our future, and we can learn the true history of the founding of the United States and of the founders. Now they did some great things, you know, but they also did some pretty horrible things too, and we need to know the full history. So we've done some difficult things too, but we've done some amazing things, and we need to know the full history. This is one thing I'm gonna do now, instead of the barbecue and the fireworks, you know what I'm gonna do? And I hope you'll do it along with me. It is called the new founders challenge. Hmm, what is that? Great, I'm glad you asked, I'm gonna tell you. While the original founders of America laid the groundwork for the country, it's, I believe, the new founders who have fought tirelessly to make this country live up to its ideals of liberty and justice for all. These are black Americans who have risked their lives, their freedom, their sacred honor to push this nation towards equality. They are the unsung heroes who have stood up against oppression, challenged systemic racism and demanded full rights and recognition promised by the founding principles of this country. From Frederick Douglass, who very eloquently denounced the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom in the land of slavery, to Martin Luther King, who envisioned the nation that rejected capitalism, militarism and racism. These new founders have paved the way for progress. You know, you might include someone like Angela Davis, who has fought for the incarcerated and oppressed and gave us a vision of what it would be like to abolish prisons, how that can be done, and yes, it can. Or there's Rosa Parks, whose activism and her act of defiance sparked a movement. And by expanding our concept, the founders, we honor those who have dedicated their lives to ensuring America becomes truly a land of liberty and justice for all. We're a long way from that now, despite all of their hard, hard work, there's been forces that have pushed back against them. There's a lot more work that needs to be done, a lot. But these people have really pushed to make America what it could be. So I encourage you to think about your own founders, those who have inspired you, who have fought for justice, who've contributed to the ongoing struggle for equality. Their courage and commitment continue to shape our nation and uplift all Americans. Even Black people work to uplift Black people, everybody benefits. So who are your founders? I'm challenging you right now, you know, because we've got to think beyond the old white man and wigs. We've got to think about the people who are really out there on the front lines now and for the last, you know, for hundreds of years. I have a short list I'm going to share, but don't want to influence you in any way. I'm just going to throw out a few, but I would love to hear your list. Now, I'm going to say here, my list, Thurgood Marshall. And, you know, he was an amazing Supreme Court justice. Ida B. Wells, who fought against lynching and who became one of America's first major investigative journalists. This is an interesting one. The NAACP and Black Lives Matter movement. Yeah, they don't have to be individuals. They can be organizations and groups that have been working tirelessly for America to uplift American and give rights and equality to people. Kwame Terre, ooh, Black Power movement. John Lewis, you know, he was out there on the bridge fighting for equality. Audrey Lord, yes, who opened up our minds and as Black people and as feminists to equality and justice. And there's Langston Hughes. He wrote this amazing poem, "Let America be America again." And before you think that that's some kind of a maga poem, it is absolutely not that. But it's a poem that announces that America never was America. Well, let's see. So as I said, that's my list. But I really love to hear yours. So, you know, you can DM me any time and we can talk about it. But before we do that, let's take one last breather break here. Then we're gonna wind it down and I got some info I think you're gonna wanna know. We're gonna talk about what our allies can do for the July 4th holiday. And I know that y'all are ready for this. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) And I really do appreciate your being here with me. I know that sometimes I can be a little bit, you know, of a downer, I can discuss some heavy things and you wanna be out there celebrating and all that. I wish I could celebrate with you and now you know why, but you do you. But I do wanna say to our allies, thank you for being here with us and for us. And here's some specific actions that you can take to support us on Independence Day. Or July 4th. First, educate yourself and others. Learn about the true history of July 4th, the July 4th holiday and share this knowledge with your circles. You know, sometimes we don't have access to other circles, your circles, but you do. And they'll listen to you. Use your platforms, what's wrong with me, platform to amplify black voices and stories. Number two, stand in solidarity. Join protests and demonstrations that call out the injustices and hypocrisies of Independence Day. Show up, speak out and stand with us, shoulder to shoulder. Support black-owned businesses and donate to organizations that are working towards racial justice. Economic empowerment is critical part of the fight for equality. Then advocate for policy changes. Use your privilege to access policy changes at the local, state and federal levels. And always, of course, challenge and confront racism. Call out racist behavior and systems in your own communities. Engage in difficult conversations with friends, family and colleagues about the realities of racism. They will listen to you more so than us. I'm going to wind it down now because it's getting a little bit long and I think my point is made. But I want to go back to the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. And I'm going to change it a little bit now to update it. And well, I'll just throw it out there. You let me know. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all people are created free and equal, that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, as I kept in that word, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Let's do it for real this time, not for some, for everyone. Asante Sanna, for being a part of a special talk today, I look forward to continuing these uncommon convos with you as we envision liberation for all people. Again, not just for some, but for everyone. And Asante Sanna, for all people who are working for liberation of oppressed peoples everywhere, we stand in solidarity with you. And remember, my fellow warriors, know this deep in your heart, you are powerful beyond measure. Together, we are invincible. If you want to keep discussing or just reading about these issues, and I hope you do, then you should subscribe to my weekly Black Empowerment newsletter, "The Normal Beat." We discuss lots of different issues there. So get your dose of Black Empowerment and liberation every single week. Never a dull moment. Lots of powerful, uplifting and liberating moments, though. You can't subscribe at the Espresso Talk Today website, EspressoTalkToday.com, or on Instagram. Add Alma Robin L. That's Alma, A-M-A, underscore, R-O-B-I-N, underscore the letter L. You can also find us on Facebook at our Espresso Talk Today, Black Liberation Lounge. This group is a safe space for us to hold discussion, share thoughts and ideas, feel joy, express sadness, mourn, or just be. You can also join us on Instagram, where I hold a live discussion every single week. DM me if you want to get the weekly schedule. Or just join me on Instagram at Alma Robin L. I'm Alma Robin for EspressoTalk Today, and remember now more than ever. Strength, soul, and reparations. Ashe community. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
