🎨#ArtIsAWeapon
Artist @esteban.whiteside Amerikkka
Caption ✍️🏾 @afropunk
"This is the land of stolen land and stolen labor. A nation built on the backs of enslaved Africans, on the broken treaties with Indigenous peoples, on the bodies of the poor, the incarcerated, the deported. This isn’t independence—it’s occupation. This isn’t bravery—it’s violence dressed up in red, white, and blue.
While fireworks light the sky, millions sit in cages. While parades march down city streets, the state slashes Medicaid, guts reproductive rights, and criminalizes homelessness. This country sings anthems of freedom while snatching children from their parents, bombing nations abroad, and rolling back civil liberties at home. Where’s the freedom in that?
This isn’t a democracy—it’s a performance. A ritual of flags and fireworks meant to distract us from the truth: that freedom in America is conditional. If you're poor, if you're queer, if you're undocumented, if you're disabled, if you're Black or Indigenous or anything but rich and white—your freedom is a threat. And your existence is political.
So no, we’re not celebrating independence. We’re remembering the resistance. We’re standing with those still fighting for liberation. We’re mourning what’s been lost, and we’re imagining what could be built in its place.
Because we don’t need performative patriotism. We need justice. We need repair.
In the words of @bigbirdkuti
Free the US from right wing extremism
Free the US from fascism
Free the US from imperialism
Free the US from racism
#July4 #FourthOfYouLie #IndependenceDayMyAss
