250 Years Later, We Still Choose To Dream
Contributor: Danielle Marck via Substack
What is July 4th to the Black American?
What is freedom to the one who is told their full liberation awaits them in heaven? What is this day to the descendants of Redwood, Elaine and Tulsa? What is this day to the families who visit their loved ones who are locked up for something they didn’t do or are serving a harsh sentence for an infraction? What is the 4th to the young mother who wants to buy fresh fruits and vegetables but can’t because food stamps only cover hoagies, chips, and soda at her local market? What is July 4th to the abolitionists who laid their life down to bear witness?
July 4th represents a concoction of emotions. For the prophetic Black Church, the drink has always been bitter; we just found ways to make it sweet. July 4th reminds us of the first fruits and seeds we’ve sown against our will, the sacrifices we’ve made, the pain we have had to endure and continue to overcome today. We are reminded of the audacious hypocrisy it takes to say all men are created equal while enslaving and brutalizing another human being made in the image of God.
It hasn’t been 250 years of democracy for us. It’s been 250 years of a fractured empire, trying to suppress our voice, trying to dim our light, trying to mute our song. The water is rising and we stand at a boiling point. Will we dream of a different America? Will we form a more perfect Union? A Union that doesn’t squelch the voices of the remnant? A Union that doesn’t legislate suffering? A Union that doesn’t blaspheme the character of God for 30 shekels of silver?
This July 4th, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence was written, we make our own declaration. We will help to build a more perfect Union that will stretch beyond the bounds of time and geography. We are not going back to the way things were. Today we declare a new independence. Today we dream of what the next 250 years can look like. Not just because we can, but because we must.
It is our birthright to imagine a better tomorrow.
As the Black church and non-Black allies, I believe we are hearing the call to rise to meet the moment, because we rise as those with the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us. We rise to bear witness to who God has called us to be. We rise to intercede for a better day. We rise to declare that He who began a good work will be faithful to complete it. We rise to envision and dream of a brighter, better and more godly tomorrow.
We dream of a day where we can work and live in peace, no longer subject to the boot against our necks.
We dream of the day when our stability, health, and generational wealth are not intercepted by highways disguised as revitalization.
We dream of a day that our communities will have all the resources we need to break the cycle of poverty.
We dream of a day that our cousins don’t have to worry about being deported.
We dream of a day when Christians and nationalists are not partners in crimes against humanity.
We dream of a day where Black organizations have their own endowments to fund their work and the work of those who are up next.
We dream of a day where Black inventors get their flowers in the land of the living, surviving long enough to smell the poignancy of its perfume.
We dream of a day when niceness is not an excuse to delay revolution.
We dream of a day we can walk through the mall without being chased for something we didn’t do.
We dream of a day where mental health resources are accessible because insurance is not a luxury.
We dream of a day where capital punishment is not used for target practice and rehabilitation is not a refurbished version of sharecropping.
We dream of a day where the death penalty is illegal, from the lynching mob to the execution chair. A day where convict leasing is eradicated and DNA checks are mandatory before sentencing.
We envision a day where every descendant of enslaved people receives a form of reparations that places them in the financial posture they earned, and that non-Black Christian allies would be supportive of this measure.
We envision a day where a private, Black-run school receives the funding it needs and more to help our children learn in a way that is safe and suitable for our people.
We envision a day where racist thoughts and racist hearts not only heal, but lose the taste to devalue our people across the diaspora.
We envision a day where white supremacy loses its demonic grip, from the U.S. to the motherland. Not because it volunteered to lose its power, but because our combined efforts, mutual support, and continued dedication to the Lord made it impossible to continue.
We dream a new dream that honors the contributions and faith of those who fought for our freedom. We will pray a prayer that has had time to marinate in the consciousness of the living Even if the dormant invitation to repent continues to lay dormant in the DNA of the moderate and spiritually monotonous, we will build what belongs to us. Our contributions are seen and undisputed.
A new day will dawn and is dawning. The rooster never stopped crowing and the chickens are coming home. We have held a mirror to the soul of America and it cannot go back to what it’s been. And may we too be forever changed and endowed with what we need to dream a new dream.
