By Matilda Bickers (July 18, 2018)
You explain to a white man what it takes to say that the US was ever great:
It takes disregarding the genocide of indigenous people’s;
The mass kidnap of Africans in order to steal their physical and sexual labour for the duration of their lives, their children’s lives, their grandchildren’s lives, their great grandchildren’s lives, their great great grand children’s lives–
and then the mass disenfranchisement of these people when their descendants are finally allowed their freedom
the creation of new ways to exploit them after emancipation;
the exploitation of all poor and working class people, including their children;
the dehumanization and state sanctioned murder of people of colour, queer people, and esp trans women of colour;
That today in the 21st century women STILL aren’t equal citizens under the law
It takes disregarding the suffering and exploitation and murder of hundreds of millions of people, maybe billions, over four centuries, in order to focus on the freedoms allowed to middle and upper class straight, white, cis men.
It takes believing that the prerogatives enjoyed by this very very small subset of humanity and of the US population–these are more important than ANYTHING else.
And the man tells you: if you don’t like it you should move.
It’s only great if you’re a sociopath.
Last time I checked, they were vastly outnumbered.
It’s true that right now the US is still not living up to its promises, especially in terms of fairly distributing our incredible bounty.
However, the principles we stand for as a nation have been an inspiration to the world since they were proclaimed on July 4, 1776.
Despite the fact that the man who wrote that “all men are created equal” felt entitled to treat other human beings as her s pissessions, including his own children, we have continued to take him at his word and taken those statements further and recognized that women possess those divinely endowed “inalienable rights” and that we need to consider the rights of all living creatures to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Will the most forward thinking among us ever be satisfied with the progress we have made toward achieving those aspirations? I sincerely hope not; because it is that unending discontent that indeed makes America great!