OPINION:
An essay from the Black Agenda Report posted just this week is entitled, “Freedom Rider: The Terrible Origins of July 4th.” And in it, the writer, Margaret Kimberley, speaks of how American exceptionalism was actually born of a white settler determination to seize native lands and expand slavery — which means, of course, that the whole concept of American exceptionalism is therefore, in this writer’s eyes, a dud.
That tells you all you need to know about the divide in this country right now.
On one side are those who know America as a spirit of freedom, as a gold standard of individualism and entrepreneurism, as a promise of opportunity, as a clarion call for liberty-lovers everywhere to join forces to advance the best of what humanity has to offer. Skin color be danged. Financial circumstances be danged. Familial ties be danged.
On the other?
On the other — this: “The July 4 holiday in the United States commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Anyone educated in this country has been propagandized with lies about patriotic colonists seeking freedom from a tyrannical British monarch. Our minds were filled with tales of Paul Revere and Betsy Ross which erase the role that indigenous and Black people played as they attempted to end true tyranny over their lives. … The men who every school child is taught to think of as ‘patriots’ had two concerns which pushed them to declare independence,” as Kimberley wrote.
What were they?
The quest for land and slaves, she wrote.
“The crown and the colonists were both determined to seize lands from native peoples and to continue enslavement,” Kimberley went on. “But their interests were also hostile to one another and war was the inevitable result. White settlers wanted full independence for themselves and no control over their actions at all.”
Thus, the Declaration of Independence was born.
Thus, White colonists warred against the king of England.
Thus, America’s roots are steeped, soaked and saturated in hate for Blacks, in racism against non-Whites. Seriously? Seriously, Kimberley argued.
But like most things coming from the lips of leftists, such rhetoric skews wildly to show truths as desired or as politically expedient, rather than as truthful.
To believe colonists and founders wanted to break from the crown simply to grow slave and land holdings dismisses the pursuit of religious liberty that served as the key foundation of America’s beginnings. It dismisses the historical recordings of founders who fought against slavery, who wanted to abolish slavery — including Thomas Jefferson the, yes, slaveowner who nonetheless argued to ban slavery in the Northwest Territories. It dismisses the very uncomfortable fact of slavery knowing no skin color, knowing no race — meaning, even blacks enslave blacks. Both then and now. The Bible’s filled with stories of slaveowners and the enslaved, don’t you know?
But most of all, it denies the unity that should be the natural outcome of a “melting pot” nation such as ours, and instead, demands a divide and conquer mentality among the citizenry. Either you’re with us, or you’re racist! — is the prevailing attitude of these critical race theory types.
It’s angering.
It’s also sad.
Those who see the world through the lens of race, those who see America as a place of systemic racism, deserve to be pitied because they’re actually giving up their chance for a life of blessed, God-given opportunity to instead sow seeds of hate, discord and division. They’re missing out; they’re squandering their lives.
But they deserve to be silenced, as well, because they’re not just sacrificing their own opportunities to achieve and their own chances to succeed. They’re coming after the children, the corporations, the country’s political leaders and demanding all sacrifice similarly. And that’s just evil.
America is exceptional because America has a spirit of liberty that cannot be constrained or contained. It’s unfortunate some want to split that spirit by color, by creed, by race.
For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the Fourth of July reminds us: Freedom is not free — freedom may never be free. But it sure is sweet and worth every bit of fight. God bless America; God bless Americans. God save America from the wickedness of historical revisionists.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.