Selena Banks (fist raised) at Black Lives Matter Rally in Minneapolis
Of The People, For The People, By The People
America is a nation founded on protest. That fact is one of the first we learn in school when we’re taught American History. We learn that the Colonists resented “taxation without representation” believed that it was their right as Englishmen to resist a tyrannical Monarch and that popular sovereignty demanded their consent. The American Revolution ensued, to be followed by the Declaration of Independence. Once independence was secured, the Articles of Confederation, which became the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were drafted to outline the powers of the government, the rights of its citizens and the responsibilities of both. The founding fathers envisioned a republic without hereditary rulers whose power came from its people through consent and participation in elections.
Two of the most common phrases arising from the Declaration of Independence are “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and “All men are created equal.” Most adult Americans can recite them and know that they are the ideals of which we as a nation were founded. However, there have always been people within our borders to whom these ideals elude. To this end the Constitution has been amended numerous times in an effort to define and secure the rights of its citizens. In 2016, 240 years after the Declaration of Independence, there are people who are and have been consistently denied these “inalienable rights” by other citizens.
Native Americans, the very people inhabiting these lands when discovered by Europeans, were excluded from citizenship and the rights accorded when Independence was secured. So were slaves, free blacks, indentured servants and Asians. In fact, the United States Naturalization Law of March 26, 1790 limited naturalization of immigrants to free white men under certain conditions. The right to vote was initially limited to adult white male property owners. The first Census was taken in 1790 and roughly 40 percent of the count were free white women and 18% were slaves. The remaining were free white males with 1 percent being other free persons. Numbers don’t lie. At the beginning a vast majority of our population did not participate in the franchise. In fact, they were not even eligible.
Why is all of this important you may be asking? This is the history that frames our current political system, culture and situation. Although we established ourselves as a republic that is not our reality. Nor has it ever been. Our political body was created and thus far has been maintained by a minority of the people but actually governs a majority. Our governing body has never mirrored its population and those words that state “All Men Are Created Equal” are still begging to become reality for some Americans –many born and raised in the USA. United States political and monetary power are primarily controlled by white men. Laws and policies that are meant to govern and protect all of us are not created by a true representation of us. It is because of this that we have the type of income, health and education disparities that we do. Laws and policies that help to replicate and perpetuate the status quo which were imported from England with the founding fathers. This past election and campaign were stark reminders of this reality for me. I know I am not alone.
Wednesday morning after the election my 17-year-old son exclaimed “We have to move to Canada!” He wasn’t quite serious but his utterance let me know that he had some anxieties about the election results. A Somali born friend stated that she would be applying for a Somali passport. I reassured her that she wouldn’t need to flee for her life but understood that returning to a war-torn country seemed to be a potentially better option than life in the United States as a Muslim. My Baby Boomer Aunt said, “Things are going to get harder for black folks” and she gave me the “side eye” when I commented that, “We’ve managed to survive the last 400 years so another 4 aren’t going to make much difference.”
The blinders can now be taken off. Racism, sexism and a whole lot of other isms are now out in the open. Until we address these issues together, as citizens, we will all suffer. ALL. OF. US. Red, yellow, black and white. Gay or straight. Protestant, Catholic or Baptist. Jew, Muslim or Hindu. Turning a blind eye does us all a disservice. Not voting, or not protesting injustice or allowing the negative stereotypes to persist do not benefit any of us. The 2nd Amendment did not apply to Philando Castile. Why not? He was a citizen with lawful permit, the right of which the amendment is touted to protect. Beyoncé mentions the 2nd Amendment in “Daddy Lessons” but was all but booed off the stage during the Country Music Awards when she performed it with the Dixie Chicks. Why? She has been singing about being “country” since forever but isn’t supposed to record a country song? First Lady Michelle Obama wears a sleeveless dress and people went nuts but when the provocative pics of First Lady-Elect Melania Trump resurfaced we’re told to consider the context in which those photos were taken. Does the word “affluenza” mean anything to you? I can come up with countless other examples of how marginalized people are treated differently and I’m sure you can too.
Our reputation as the greatest nation has always been tainted by unequal treatment and unequal application of the law. Lady Liberty has left the premises. I’m beginning to wonder to what degree was she ever here? Or for who? Just us is not justice. To see lasting change, we must change our systems that replicate inequality. How? Speak out. Stand up. Participate. Just like the patriots, abolitionists, suffragists’ and Civil Rights activists did. That is the only way our republic can be of the people, for the people and by the people.
Using the words of Nixon in 1971 “the American dream can never be fulfilled until every American has an equal chance to fulfill it in their own life” in other words “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” has to be a reality for all of us. Period. For that to happen we have to protest when our government and its citizens continue to violate the rights of others. After all, to protest is American.
