To Fred L. Johnson III, a U.S. historian at Hope College in Michigan who studies slavery, race and the Civil War, the notion of marking Independence Day without digging into what it means — including the compromises the founders made to appease the pro-slavery South — is ludicrous. “The very things they were complaining that the British were doing to them, they were doing the same thing — oppression — to Black people early on,” he says. “Being an American citizen is like having a relationship,” Johnson says. “If all you can do is accept the good parts of the relationship and can’t deal with the hard stuff, I question the sincerity of your relationship. On the national birthday, bang and whimper are fighting it out as never before.

Source: Daily Sun July 04, 2020 13:07 UTC