So today marks another anniversary of Americas Independence. Many of us will be at cookouts and parties all day never once really thinking about what the 4th of July really is. It was the birth of the most powerful democracy in modern times which happened to be built on slave labor. A democracy where many of our ancestors who were here, couldn't get away with even a percentage of the things we get away with today in society. As much as I love America and all it has done for me and my family, every forth of July I'm reminded of all the injustice this country has had over the years and still has now. For many people who look like me, the colors red, white, and blue reminds them more about police brutality and racial profiling then America or its flag. The blue is for the uniform of the cops that harass and treat them as second class citizens. The red is for the blood that spills out every time we are wrongfully shot, beat, or even killed because we fit some dumb ass profile. And the white you already know what that's stands for.

We all know the story of how the new Americans fought together to get freedom from England for self rule, But have have you ever stopped to look at the actual facts? They left England, came to another already inhabited land and took it as if it was never walked upon because of what ever they were facing in Europe. Killed the natives, stole some black folks to build and take care of the land , and established the most powerful nation in the world. Its ironic that the same freedom they were fighting for was the same freedom they helped European nations take away from African and South American civilizations. When America became free on July 4th 1776, people who had any resemblance to me were anything but free. Blacks would spend more then the next 90 years trying to be become free in America. Even with the end of slavery due to the civil war, blacks were far from equal to whites. Many people think that race was only a problem in the south but you would be highly mistaken. Segregation was just the next step in the master plan of America for blacks. They never intended for us to be here and if we had to stay, we were never to feel welcomed.

For many of us, we are still not free. Its one thing to be free and then it’s another to have freedom. A lot of us thing we are free (and in many aspects of life we are here in America) but we still do not have freedom. When I say freedom I mean it’s in the sense that many black folks have been in the same predicament as they were generations ago and don't have the freedom to change it. Living paycheck to paycheck just to pay on over due bills does not seem like much freedom to me. Is there freedom of upward mobility???? For a few, but for most that is only a dream or wish which usually gets pasted to the next generation to try to achieve.

There are still two Americas in the country even if we don't want to believe it. So when you are out doing what ever you are doing tomorrow, take a second out and think about what America are you living in and are apart of.

This song by Trick Daddy.... Yesssss Trick Daddy, is one that expresses how it still is to be BLACK in America

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BopZLXLxR0A&hl=en&fs=1]