Why ‘Party Like It’s 1776’ is offensive

I walked away from the checkout, receipt in hand, frustrated by my pricey grocery bill. As I neared the exit, a white T-shirt on a rack caught my attention: a Fourth of July tee. Even though it was May 31, and the Freedom Day I celebrate falls on June 19 — weeks before July 4 — I saw no Juneteenth apparel. That absence is not surprising at the grocery store chain I visited, which is well known for supporting Republicans and Donald Trump, the nation’s most felonious president.

I glanced at the shirt. It read: “Party Like It’s 1776.”

As a Black woman, I do not want to party like it’s 1776, when slavery existed and a fledgling nation was led by duplicitous “Founding Fathers” who wrote in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Those lofty words came from tyrants fighting tyranny.

Fireworks, flags, and renditions of the National Anthem have never distracted me from that hypocrisy.

With the president of the U.S. and national and local lawmakers orchestrating the attacks on Black Americans’ voting rights and civil rights while being openly anti-Black, I can understand why the offending T-shirt has a market today.