I've read numerous iconic quotes throughout my caramel life, and I have my personal gems and jewels - powerful words, ranging from Frederick Douglass, and Dr. King to Helen Keller, Thomas Paine, and Coach Bum Phillips to Malcolm X and FDR; however, I do believe this one, still today “relevant” by the renowned Frederick Douglass is perhaps the best.

Sir Douglass (Black American Royalty) is speaking such undeniable truth to an unquestionably barbaric, arrogant, and heartless audience… White America. It was then and it still is today, no?

Douglass said this 150 years ago; What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

You tell me: has this empire changed? Or, are they just about as racist and elitist as they've always been, merely a tad more sophisticated, camouflaged, and shrouded in deceitful BS…?

As a descendant of American slaves… well over a century later, I think no truer words have been spoken than Douglasses. As a people, Black folks still ponder “ How do I feel about my country, and how does my country feel about me.”

Now come this 2021 Independence Day celebrations, where “Ol’Glory“ will be flying, I suggest Black folks, we descendants of American Slaves, should deliberately and defiantly fly the US flag upside down, which is the international sign of distress. Despite the fireworks, hot dogs, Vintage Chevy Corvette car shows, and all the Coke flowing…

It’s no secret there’s a neo-confederate Redneck revolt that is being waged as we speak, the basic civil rights victories of the last half-a-century are under attack in the face of a browning America. Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of the end of White domination, the “last stand” and “fall-out” of European Conquest… or this is the beginning of “Minority Rule” in America and Trump’s Troops will ram down our throats their way of life.

Apartheid...American style.

Disneyland won't have to change Splash Mountain and Merril the Mermaid can stay a White girl. Do Blacks have to sit in the back of the plane? Do we have to “be out of town by sundown...boy!” Back in Coon-town by sunset…?

What do these racist/sexist and elitist folks want? How far are they willing to go to get it? 1920 Tulsa Massacre, Rosewood...only as a national coast-to-coast event? Wal-Mart is out of guns and ammo… for a reason. Trump’s toy soldier, General Micheal Flynn, his baby bra’ orchestrated the assault on the White House on January 6 and was just promoted to head-up the Pacific fleet… all the pieces, all the King’s men are moving into position.

Upside down, fly them high.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Desi Cortez, who also writes for BlackAthlete.com & NegusWhoRead.com, was hatched in the heart of Dixie, circa 1961, at the dawning of the age of Aquarius, the by-product of four dynamic individuals, Raised in South-Central LA, the 213. At age 14 transplanted to the base of the Rockies, Denver. Still a Mile-Hi. Sat at the foot of scholars for many, many moons, emerging with a desire and direction… if not a sheep-skin. Meandered thru life; gone a-lot places, done a-lot of things, raised a man-cub into an officer n' gentleman, a "man's man." Produced a beautiful baby-girl with my lover/woman/soul-mate… aired my "little" mind on the airwaves and wrote some stuff along the way. Wordsmith behind America's Ten Months Pregnant . . . Ready To Blow!: Even Trump Can't "Make America White Again." A New, More Inclusive, Diverse 21st Century America - Love It . . . Or Get The Hell Out!. Contact Mr. Cortez and BC.