By Antonia Williams-Gary
Toniwg1@gmail.com

On the 250th anniversary of the United States of America!
A word: Patriot, def., “a person who vigorously supports their country, demonstrates deep
national loyalty, and places their nation’s interests before their own”.

This is not about the meaning of the fourth of July, nor what it means to me.

No. Frederick Douglass already answered that back in 1852 with far more eloquence than I could.

But I have joined many others who are parsing out the meanings, nuances, and suspension
of logic to accept the mythology required to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of this country’s independence.

This is a larger examination about who is a patriot, who is a lover of this country, and who
lovingly resists abuses and misuses of established laws, etc.

Black folk have been true patriots since before the revolution that completed the independence movement when we learned about the written laws and those various lofty expressions about man’s right to be free (from tyranny, from unfair taxation, from
representation, etc.)

Were we patriots when we joined the colonists and participated in the early skirmishes
against the British?

Were we also patriots when we joined the British who, as a tactic of war, promised Blacks freedom for fighting against the colonists, thus becoming loyalists?

In the early formation of what is the USA, Blacks picked the sides (nations) which held the most promise for their autonomy as people, not property, and chose whichever nation to pledge allegiance to that fulfilled their yearning to be free.

In both cases, Blacks shed blood in true patriot fashion.

We know how it ended. When Britain lost the war, some of the free loyalist Blacks went to the Bahamas.

Others went to Canada, which continued to remain a beacon for Black folks who freed themselves via the Underground Railway or by sheer grit.

In 2026, I am pained to express the patriot creed: my country over me; my blood is precious and I must carefully choose on which ‘side’ to stand. Therefore, I have joined the resistance movement!

I recall Gil Scott Heron’s poem/song: The Revolution Will Not be Televised.

Even during this fast-changing age of AI, digital imaging, the internet, et al., we know that the revolution will
be enacted live, in the streets, with active participation and not passive viewership.

It is already happening; actually, has been happening since day one of this country’s earliest formative days.

Resistance and protest are bedrocks of USA history.

“The people” have never been totally passive.

Movements have ebbed and flowed, but the constant focus has been on making this place better: recognizing that the natives were criminally exploited, many of the laws are unjust, Black folk are still owed reparations, allied interests/groups shift, yet the prize
remains the same.

We all yearn to be full citizens in our own country, i.e., natives and naturalized persons who owe allegiance to a government and entitled to its protection, but who are not necessarily patriots.

Patriotism is about love.

Can Black folk be both citizens and patriots? Of course. Look at the composition of the military, as an example.

But duty and love can be a stretch for the general population of Black folk who have not been loved back and for whom the government has reneged on its obligations to them.

I just hope there is an ‘underground’ organizational response being formed somewhere which is working to redefine patriotism; one which may still result in some bloodshed, but which holds the long view to rewrite what should constitute this nation: inclusive participation, true representation, equal balances of power, equitable means and sources of funding itself and with an equal distribution of resources, to list a few absolute minimum
requirements in order to form a “more perfect union”; one to fight and perhaps die for.

Like a true patriot.

In formulating a new nation, Frederick Douglass would warn us to remain as clandestine as possible and to avoid becoming a revealed “upperground”, wherein too many people are working, being exposed or quoted, and/or paraded in front of cameras.

I say “amen” to that.

So, let me say happy July Fourth to all the real patriots: Black folk who are still attempting to resolve the founding errors, to reclaim this nation, and who are continuously and tirelessly working on making.