RACISM

What to a Colonized People Is Your Independence Day?

Pure hypocrisy and mockery.

Photo by Alfred Kenneally on Unsplash

Cuando la tirania es ley, la revolución es orden.
(English: When tyranny rules, the revolution is order.)
~ Pedro Albizu Campos, Puerto Rican Freedom fighter, Harvard-educated lawyer, President of the Nationalist Party

Over a decade ago, I stopped celebrating that infamous ‘holiday’ millions of people in the U.S. eagerly await. The most vivid memory I have of an event surrounding the fourth of July was in 2012 — after a heated argument with Özgür (my then spouse).

Storming out of the apartment, I called my nephew. His words hit me like a freight train “Happy 4th of July, Titi.” Though his enthusiastic sentiment of what he considered to be well wishes was something I tried not to judge him over, I wasn’t interested in having a long drawn out political debate on the topic. All I mustered was —

I don’t celebrate it!

Here’s the thing, back then, my nephew was enlisted in the U.S. Army. Add to this, the fact that his father [my older brother] was [is] an Army veteran and staunch supporter of what the gringo flag supposedly represents!

Suffice it to say, my nephew was well indoctrinated with the brainwashing of what the famed mid-summer day festivities…