+1 yI’m not black or American. I’m a white girl from Canada. I say it’s really up to you. Our Canada Day is July 1 (equivalent to American Independence Day). This year our government considered canceling Canada Day after the discovery of unmarked graves of Indigenous children at old residential school locations where indigenous children were tortured. Canadian citizens were divided on whether or not to cancel Canada Day because of this and so the government just let us do what we want. Some people didn’t celebrate Canada Day at all in respect for the Indigenous community and other people did just because they didn’t care. Those who didn’t care were mostly white people.
I’m in full support of Juneteenth so if that’s your Independence Day then so be it. White people aren’t the ones to tell others what they can and can not celebrate.10 Reply
Most Helpful Opinions
Anonymous(25-29)+1 yIt’s the nation’s Independence Day but it’s not our Independence Day. Ours came much later. So the day doesn’t have as much relevance for me as it probably does for white America.
10 Reply
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
17Opinion
Anonymous(36-45)+1 yLast I checked, anyone that is an American has the right to celebrate Independence Day, regardless of race.
With that being said, the 4th is just as much my day as anyone else and I will celebrate it :) It's true, our ancestors suffered and most of which were slaves, but now we have opportunities they didn't. It's up to us to utilize our independence and rights, and make the most of it.63 Reply- +1 y
Well you’re entitled to your believes but I’m not going to celebrate the 4th
- +1 y
@SmokinAces2000 - That's nice. Celebrate what you want. Remember if it wasn't for July 4th and many other holidays that represent separation, etc. you and a lot of Americans would likely be far worse off.
Anonymous(25-29)+1 yIt's called "United" states for a reason. By celebrating a different date you're essentially denouncing your allegiance to your country and should be forfeiting your passports.
And besides without the Independence Slavery would have never ended. Do you honestly believe that anyone would have gotten the English King to acknowledge slaves as free people?
Don't be manipulated by mass media it only seeks to keep you divided and make sure you never get the equality you want.05 Reply- +1 y
I have 0 allegiance to America
Opinion Owner+1 yIt's your choice but don't expect America to have any allegiance to you when you need her.
- +1 y
Since the British Empire passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, 30 years before the Americans did, that's unfounded speculation.
To say that people should be forfeiting their passports for deciding not to celebrate a day that serves little relevance to them, is to betray a founding principle of the American Revolution. The right of free speech and political protest.
Take Frederick Douglass who famously scorned July 4th. “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn,” Douglass said, then asking the audience, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?” - +1 y
I won’t ever need America so I don’t care
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Galieator thank you they will never understand to them all they here is “you don’t celebrate my Independence Day, you bad”
2.8K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic. You didn’t actually free yourself. Independence Day is for those that freed themselves. Juneteenth is the day those free and independent minded people also fought and died to free you.
Those independent minded people are active in getting freedom for themselves and you. You were passive and just a recipient. So I can see why you are disconnected from it.00 Reply
Anonymous(36-45)+1 yEverybody vilifies the U. S. for having slavery as if nobody else in the world was in on it, and I don't see how they can be so short-sighted. I celebrate the independence of the nation who gave us our freedom, from the empire who shipped us here after buying us from the culture who enslaved us, just as I celebrate the act of that nation giving us said freedom. To me, the two go hand in hand
017 Reply- +1 y
We aren’t talking about every other country in the world. If my ancestors were enslaved in “AMERICA” why would I be happy that they freed us they should have never enslaved us. So I’m just supposed congratulate them on doing the right things, please 😂
Opinion Owner+1 yWhile I do see where you're coming from, let's be real. Our ancestors were enslaved in Africa, mostly by Muslim slave traders. Then they were sold to the English, Spanish, and French to be used in the Americas.
When the U. S. became a nation, they quickly went to work on the slavery problem, and in less than 100 years (less than 50, if you want to go from the time we were established as an undisputed free nation), they fought a brutal war to end it once and for all.
White male Americans are 100% the reason why slavery ended in the U. S.. The Arabs, African Muslims, French, Spanish, and English are the ones who started it. So no, e should never have been enslaved, but let's direct that righteous anger toward those who deserve it.- +1 y
I already know about the slave trade and all of that but I don’t live in those other countries and a lot of African slavery they used their own people (not all) and not to mention one reason Africans sold each other was too save their own butts from the European travelers. I don’t see why you are saying I need to be mad at those other countries when I don’t live in those other countries. This is the country that my ancestors were enslaved in and I find it very dismissive that you are bringing up other countries when having a conversation about events in America
Opinion Owner+1 yWait... so you're only pissed about the slavery in American history? You might find it 'dismissive' that I'm bringing up the whole truth, but I find it disrespectful to my ancestors that you're not equally angry at the nations that enslaved them. America didn't have a monopoly on slavery by a long shot, and not all of our ancestors were slaves here.
But you don't care about that, do you? You only give a damn about what you can benefit from.- +1 y
Dude if I was born in America generations before me were hear the country I’m currently living in enslaved my ancestors and it’s not just about slavery those other countries didn’t hang black people on trees and make specific laws targeting black people. And I get no benefit from living here
- +1 y
*here
Opinion Owner+1 yDamn. You don't even know your own family's history, do you... you just assume that since you were born here, your ancestors were American slaves. That's how important this is to you, right? You probably think that American slaves had it worse than slaves in other countries, too, huh?
Slavery has existed on the continent of Africa itself for over 2,500 years and is still going strong to this day, but I'm being dismissive because I don't focus on the country with the shortest history of slavery of any nation on earth. And that makes sense to you in some way...
And you don't even know where your ancestors were enslaved... how would you feel if you found out that your family escaped to the U. S. after being freed from some other country so they'd have a chance at a better life, only to have their descendants sit and wallow in such hate and self-pity that they never took advantage of the opportunities they had? Just sad, man.- +1 y
My family has been here for generations and generations and my family has spoke English without any others countries accent so it’s not hard to put two and two together. Also I never said that American slaves had it the worst in history (they might have) and talking about other countries will not solve American problems
Opinion Owner+1 yThat's still an assumption, not knowledge. You probably can't even positively say what state your ancestors were slaves in or what they were forced to do, and it's because it really doesn't matter to you. The only reason you even mention it is because it serves you some purpose, personally. You hate the United States why? Because you're not successful? Because you're not happy? And it gives you someone else to point the finger at instead of the real problem.
American slaves definitely didn't have it the worst. Not by a mile. Freed American slaves didn't either. And the descendants of those freed slaves have it among the best, if not THE best.
And I'll also add that harping about past evils won't solve current problems any more than talking about world history solves American problems. But what it should do is give you some perspective. If my family had stayed where they were instead of coming to this amazing country you hate so much, I'd have nothing. No indoor plumbing. No electricity, and so no refrigerator, oven, lights, internet access, smart phones. No car. Barely even a roof and four walls.
Descendants of slaves in other countries are living in improvised shelters, shitting outside, walking miles to fetch water that might kill them, and cooking over fires that give their children respiratory problems (when they actually have food, that is), and you're living in relative comfort and complaining about a holiday.
But again... you don't care about any of that... and of course, I'm just being dismissive.
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I hate the United States because this country has never cared that much about my people. I’m currently in university studying criminal justice so I’d say I’m on the path to success. Just because I don’t stand up for the pledge or am a proud American doesn’t mean I’m pointing the finger at anyone. I just don’t like the US plain and simple
Opinion Owner+1 yHow much is enough? They gave you food, housing, plumbing, electricity, a free education, and the opportunity to succeed (assuming you grew up poor, which you may not have). Do you understand that that's FAR more than other countries do? Do you understand that that's exactly why my family came here in the first place?
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I don’t care I don’t have to love the country I was born in
Opinion Owner+1 yYou're right about that. Just know that your hate isn't based on anything resembling independent thought, much less critical thinking.
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I do think independently and I independently don’t like this country 😂 just because I don’t stand up for the flag and I don’t love this country like all these quote on quote “patriots” doesn’t make me a sheep that listens to MSM
Opinion Owner+1 yThen what has this country done to you to make you hate it?
- +1 y
Killing off almost an entire group of people and then building a country on top of their bodies that they expect me to be proud of, bringing in slaves from an entirely different continent just to whip, kill, beat, and rape not to mention trying to belittle slavery and its effects every chance it gets, and after freeing those slaves they hung their descendants on trees for fun and burned crosses on their yard (which was only 60 years ago), and when the descendants of those slaves actually succeeded they destroyed that success (Black Wallstreet) and then wonder why many of them don’t have the drive to succeed, killing a black man in the street because they thought he had a counterfeit 20 dollar bill. The list goes on and although these things haven’t happened to me personally (although I’m still young) they belittle everything on this list and expect us to just forgive and forget and berate us for talking about it. Now be a proud American if you want to. Stand at the flag, fly the American flag on the back of your truck, I don’t care just don’t expect me (A Young Black Man that knows his history) to do that.
Opinion Owner+1 yThen you would hate virtually every country in the entire world if you knew their history. I can't disagree with hating the world, though. Knowing how the world works, no matter the nation or political system, I can definitely identify with that.
But this is the nation where we have the greatest opportunities for success and freedom, and where the most progress has been made toward egalitarianism. So while "love" may be a strong word, I definitely hate this country less than any other, lol.
I think it's a self defeating idea to take on something like this. July 4th is a win for all of us. Overdeveloping the importance of this in your mind only serves to hold you back. Even if you're right. Consider if this serves you longterm
04 Reply- +1 y
You do know that there were still slaves after the revolutionary war so out of pure curiosity how is that a win for Black people?
- +1 y
Longterm anything that lead to creating the machine that is America today has allowed those that love to read the benefits. Yes, blacks back then weren't better off.
Black people today are far far far better off in part do to us having the Revolutionary War. America could not be what it is today without that and whether we like it or not. We benefit from it's creation.
To take energy to turn back and spit on that, not allowing the win to even land is at it's core a self defeating thought process that will hold you back.
Why June 19th?
Why not September 22nd or January 1st? How about December 6th? Or April 9th or November 6th? These dates are as much or more meaningful to the end of slavery in America that June 19th...
You're wrong... July 4th is the date where we took the first steps toward freedom in America and subsequently, the end of slavery and pursuit of equality for all.02 Reply- +1 y
Yeah the 4th was when white people were freed slaves were still around 100 years after that
1.8K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic. Shouldn't the Day that the emancipation proclamation was signed be THE day?
Do what you want, I just figured the actual Day it was established, not the day some years later that some folks heard about it, should be the day.01 Reply- +1 y
Yeah I do agree with that but it’s been called Juneteenth for so long and I guess we’ll take what we can get
- 1.3K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic.
+1 yI'm not black or American and it makes sense for a black person with an association to slavery to consider June-teenth their independence day.
10 Reply 1.9K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic. How about you pack your things and leave for Africa, a whole continent where you won't have to live with the white people you seem to hate so much?
09 Reply- +1 y
Never said I hated white people and what a racist thing to say
- +1 y
So me not wanting to celebrate the 4th of July equals me hating white people, by that logic if you don’t celebrate Juneteenth you have black people, you sound very ridiculous
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How are you going to tell me why I do what i do or think what I think 😂 you don’t know me, I don’t want this country to bow down to me i just choose not to celebrate July 4th so don’t try to act like you know anything about me, have a nice day 😄
- +1 y
Galieator of course he’s trying to deflect his own hatred
+1 yOf course I would! We fought in the revolutionary war too didn't we?
05 Reply- +1 y
And right after black people were out right back into slavery
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*put
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We fought out of that too.
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Yeah you can celebrate if you want but I’m personally not going to celebrate the independence of a country that still kept my ancestors as slaves even after they helped them win a war
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You do you
4K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic. Plenty of free black people during independence.
A greater portion of those tax payers.011 Reply- +1 y
What are you talking about
- +1 y
@SmokinAces2000 - I am always amused by African Americans who don't bother researching their brethren. Shows how self-centered and ignorant they are. Salem Poor & Colonel Tye were just two of the African Americans who fought FOR America and helped pave the way to independence July 4th
- +1 y
It always amuses me how entitled white people want black people to be proud of a country that has screwed them over multiple times. And you don’t know what I do or do not research, I already knew who those two people were so don’t assume that I don’t do my research and what I’m saying is slaves weren’t independent on July 4th even after black people died to make America independent they were still slaves after the war
- +1 y
@SmokinAces2000 - obviously you don't know shit. What when blacks happened to own slaves during the Revolution. Go blame your brethern.
- +1 y
Yeah I know that but I find it interesting that you are talking about me blaming white people while completely trying to belittle the impacts of slavery, just stop
- +1 y
@SmokinAces2000 - you said > Yeah I know that but I find it interesting that you are talking about me blaming white people while completely trying to belittle the impacts of slavery, just stop < go to Africa.
They still practice slavery. Slavery has been abolished in Mauritania, as an example, for 40 years (1981) & in 2016 people were sent to prison for protesting slavery. That's 35 YEARS slavery was OUTLAWED in Mauritania and people were STILL PRACTICING SLAVERY.
In many countries blacks enslaving other blacks - poorer people, relatives even, etc. - will be practice until the end of time.
And that's exactly who you can blame for slavery... black Africans sold their brethren, their poorer relatives, their enemies and rivals, etc. to explorers for money & weapons so that tribes and families and cultures could wage more successful war and trade against their rivals. And the explorers merely took the sold people to America seeing free labour. No different than indentured servants and slaves of European ancestry, Irish as example were servants and slaves of English.
I grew up in Africa. I know of people who enslave and treat their fellow Africans worse than you would dirt. Use them until they die. They have less value than a donkey or a cow. - +1 y
BlackBeauty90 why is it whenever American slavery is talked about other countries get brought up I don’t live in those other countries and I’m not talking about slavery in those other countries and yeah I know Africans were selling others but firstly they didn’t know how bad the slavery was going to be and second a lot of them did that to save their own butts
- +1 y
@SmokinAces2000 you said > they didn’t know how bad the slavery was going to be. Are you stupid? Slavery is bad anywhere. Do you think slaves in Africa are treated like kings. They're treated like garbage.
- +1 y
I never said that they weren’t, what I’m saying is that they for the most part used their own people and it still wasn’t as severe not to mention they didn’t travel to a whole different continent to bring back slaves to theirs and keep this going for a couple hundred years, just to be released back into society to get lynched, businesses burned down, and segregation
Anonymous(45 Plus)+1 yDo black Americans want a cohesive and unified America or a fractionated and divided America?
00 Reply
+1 y1870. blacks gained the right to vote. Ya know, independence
04 Reply- +1 y
What does that have to do with the question
- +1 y
Think about it, bro
- +1 y
That has nothing to do with the 4th of July 😂
- +1 y
yes it does dude
2.5K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic. As far as i know, those are separate events. You dividing them makes no sense
00 Reply- 1.9K opinions shared on Society & Politics topic.
+1 yThat's fine too
Please fly the American Flag on June 19th along with the other flags01 Reply- +1 y
Naw I’m good but thanks for the suggestion
Anonymous(36-45)+1 ythis will make it easioer to see each other as real enemies during the coming civil war. We aren't countery men
00 Reply
Anonymous(30-35)+1 yWhy are you pointing it at blacks? I feel threatened. Are you Dylan roof?
01 Reply- +1 y
If you feel threatened then why reply
+1 yJuneteenth is mine.
14 Reply- +1 y
Mine too
- +1 y
4th of July is for white people. What you think about having a black ethnostate?
- +1 y
Wouldn’t work it would just get destroyed like Black Wallstreet
+1 yIdiot.
131 Reply- +1 y
Dude just stop commenting on my questions if you aren’t going to bring any thing valuable to the question
- +1 y
Why? You’re just trolling anyway.
- +1 y
How do
- +1 y
*how so
- +1 y
Because you’re saying shit you don’t even really believe.
- +1 y
Oh I definitely believe it, you don’t
- +1 y
Then why do you stay here? Obviously America isn’t for you.
- +1 y
Because where am I supposed to go thanks to slavery I can’t call any African country home because my ancestors were bred with other Africans so I am a mixture of a bunch of different countries, not to mention I don’t have any money to immigrate anywhere, I probably will try to emigrate somewhere when I’m older though, but that’s very ignorant of you to just ignore the problems in America and suggest that I go to a different country to solve the problem
- +1 y
I’m not ignoring the problems of America. But splitting the culture of the country deliberately will not solve them. You don’t want to be here, so you’re welcome to leave.
- +1 y
😂 I find it kinda funny how quick you are to say I can just leave but you claim you aren’t t trying to ignore problems
- +1 y
I’m not advocating polices that would exacerbate them like you are. And you’re the one that has an issue with this country that’s so racist we elected a black president twice. Nothing will make you happy. You want to be a victim.
- +1 y
Never said I was a victim I’m saying to stop pretending like everything is fine now it’s not racism still exists wether you want to admit it or not and trying to ignore it and not talking about it is not going to make it go away
- +1 y
Is creating a separate but equal Independence Day more racist or less racist?
- +1 y
How am I supposed to celebrate the Independence Day of country that I wasn’t even a part of at the time. That makes absolutely no sense
- +1 y
Lol, you weren’t a slave either.. So don’t celebrate Junteenth
- +1 y
If that’s the case you shouldn’t celebrate the 4th sense you didn’t fight to when America’s independence
- +1 y
Do you even read what you write? You said you shouldn’t celebrate Independence Day because you weren’t here when the country was formed. I didn’t type that. You’re arguing with yourself.
I think a guy right off the boat/plane entering America on July 3 should celebrate Independence Day.
PS my family did fight in the revolutionary war. We’ve been here since the 1740s. - +1 y
You said I wasn’t a slave so I shouldn’t celebrate Juneteenth and I said you don’t fight for America to have independence so you shouldn’t celebrate the 4th of July
- +1 y
You know you’re the kind of person that drags this country down? On essentially every post that has a hint of something good about this holiday, you leave comments reminding everybody about how whites have wronged blacks. Well, no shit, every ethnicity has wronged another ethnicity at some point in history. You probably forgot that it was blacks that sold other blacks into slavery, white slavers no less (or maybe you did and you just chose not to point it out - you seem to have a great selective memory and greater amount of excuses for not leaving our country.) Here’s a question that’s been bugging me: why were you guys enslaving each other to begin with? And you also seem to forget that whites were also being enslaved LONG before America was founded (which you seem to think was the start of black slavery - go figure).
- +1 y
Ever heard of the Roman Empire? They built this thing in Britain called Hadrian’s Wall? It means that they were in Britain hundreds of years before the Africa slave trade started, much less reached its peak. And what do you think the Romans were doing to the whites in Britain, France, and Germany at the time? Giving them bread? Massages? A nice pat on the ass followed by an encouraging shout of “Go get ‘em, sport!”? Romans (Italians if you want to refer to them as such) at the time were not white either (since I knew you were going to point that out). There may be a bunch of Italian whites nowadays, but back when there wasn’t bunch breeding done between races, they were brown, just like everybody else that’s close to the equator. But you don’t see me going up to every brown Italian I see, saying, “Hey, you owe me!” (I’m not even going to get started on the Islamic slave trade - which is still going on today, mind you)
Black people have been wronged, there’s no denying that. But you seem to pointedly ignore the fact that ALL people have been wronged at some point in time. There’s more people in the world than just YOU. And what’s with you pointing out how Africans breeding with other Africans is making it difficult for you to ‘go home?’ Why would that be a problem? Are you now racist or something towards Africans?
I’ve known some very nice black people - would give you the shirt off of their back and then jump in front of a bullet for you without finding out anything about you because they cared about people in general and their country as a whole. I feel very bad for those people and what they’ve gone through. And your prejudice and obvious hypocrisy makes you, if you happen to resemble them in any manner, an utter disgrace to them - but it’s pretty obvious that you don’t really care about them, just yourself.
Happy Independence Day! :D - +1 y
@SmokinAces2000
There's still slavery... but no one is talking about that now, are they?
Ever hear of a pimp?
Human traffickers come in all colors, yes.
But if you cared about how evil slavery was then you should still care about how evil it is.
Otherwise you're just a leech in it for the money.
Enjoy your day.
Yeah - +1 y
Andreas77 I never said I didn’t care about human trafficking because you are right it is evil but that’s really not the topic of conversation, why is it that every time a black person tries to talk about slavery, it’s met with conflict and denying and belittling
- +1 y
Ok...
Yeah slavery was and is legal.
Only half the states were slave states and the rest were free states. It stayed close to half and half from revolutionary war to the civil war.
But I never owned a slave and you were never a slave.
Quit bitching about the past and blaming the living for the evil the dead have committed.
If one REALLY cares about the evils of slavery then do something about it.
THAT is my issue regarding slavery.
If you really cared about it then do something about it and stop blaming my kids for something that happened 160+ years ago. - +1 y
- +1 y
It’s not just slavery that’s what people are not understanding, lynchings were happening all the time 60 years ago, travon martin 9 years ago, George Floyd 1 year ago. It’s very easy for you to call it bitching when you don’t have to worry about shit like this. Racism is the same as it was, people are just better at hiding it and they don’t just show it out on the streets. That’s why so many people refuse to believe that they are racist. Because over the years racist people passed that racism down to their children and so on, so now racist people don’t see themselves as racist because they aren’t going in the middle of the street calling black people niggers or hanging black people on trees, now don’t get me wrong this doesn’t go for everyone but I find it hard to believe that most racism went away in the matter of 60 years
- +1 y
You’re right, I don’t know what you’re going through or have to worry about what you have to worry about. I just have to worry about getting blamed for something that I didn’t do, potentially lose my job because of it, become a outcast of society because of my skin color, get ridiculed, harassed, potentially attacked and killed because of how I look and how that’s relevant to the history revolving around my ethnicity (sound familiar?).
Congratulations! Instead of looking at these dregs of society and saying, “You know what? I’m not going to put up with this. I’m better than these racist pricks, and I’m going to treat people better than them because I know what it’s like to be judged off of my skin rather than my character,” you went ahead and decided to just join the group and drag the rest of society down to your level - and then complain about how everything’s gone to hell and ridicule others who want to be United and who willingly ignore what others may look like.
You have no reason to complain about this because you are part of the problem, not the solution. The only valuable thing you’ve brought to this post, and probably to life itself, is how you’re showing yourself to be a bad example to the rest of society.
But yes, please, do go on about how you have all of the problems… - +1 y
Lol please how is it that y’all say black people play the victim but here you are completely pulling the victim card and expecting someone not to call bullshit. White people don’t get blamed or harassed you just don’t like that people are asking you to accept that not everything is fine now and if you do get harassed it’s probably because you feel as though you can dictate what happens in the black community, not saying that you deserve it if that’s the case”which it’s probably not” but it’s not about your race smh, you really have the nerve to say black people have the most victim hood
- +1 y
“ White people don’t get blamed or harassed,” says the guy who’s probably not white.
“You really have the nerve to say black people have the most victim hood,” says the guy posting on every comment about how blacks were enslaved by this country.
“Expecting someone not to call bullshit.” Nah, we already knew people were going to do that. We’re just calling bullshit on you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got go oppress some people… because apparently that’s all I’m capable of doing.
- +1 y
Alright buddy whatever you say
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