May the fourth be with you

Today's July 4th.

If you don't know, on this day 245 years ago, The United States of America gained independence from the British Colony. 1776, the Founding Fathers started America as we know it today.

Two hundred and forty five years.

That's a lot. The USA has come a long way since then. They've grown to become even bigger and stronger than their colonialists. Military power, economic power, industrial power, the USA is a World Power and you'd have to count 2 more countries before you get to their colonialists.

They've come a long way.

They made their English Language, tweaked a couple of words to own the language even more, and even grew to banter the British way of speaking English.

King James I would be proud of the empire he instigated by sending out those charters six years into the 17th century.

But you'd think that if Americans loved independence so much that they fought for it, slavery would end at the same time they got independence.

For context, American Slavery started a whopping 157 years before Independence. Africans were slaves for that long, fam. If this were a soap opera, you'd think the logic would be "we've oppressed so long, we got our freedom; there should be no more form of oppression".

But no! It continued for another 89 years.

Let's decide not to play victim. The Blacks had the Juneteenth to celebrate the end of a horror story—one with a spin-off, flat out racism.

There's this quote that says, "the oppressed hate oppression cos they're not on the other side of it"—something like that. It's interesting that the concept of independence and slavery/racism has been woven into the minds of over 3 generations ... and somehow they've managed to co-exist.

Yet, with this dark history around the United States, they've managed to remain the destination of choice for millions of intending migrants. They've become the pioneers of more than half of what makes your everyday life a working mechanism.

Look around you. You own an American device.

With racism in full force, they've increased their reach with words like Nigerian-American, Chinese-American, etc. They outsourced their citizenship to be a part of your story.

The popular Star Wars phrase "May the Fourth Be With You" used on Star Wars Day, May the 4th is somehow also combined with July 4th—America's Independence, hence the reason it sounded like a really good title.

But the American Independence story has taught me one thing. You never know what you can do until you've done it.

Your character is only shaped by what you've done, not what you think you can or cannot do. You do not know if you're racist or homophobic until you're put in a situation.

You have no idea how patriarchal you can be until you're in that situation. You do not know what you love until you've tried everything. You do not know until you've seen it.

You can't imagine habits, behaviours or reactions.

So when you really want to say "never", think hard.

If it was true, then there'll be no breakups. No one would blame the devil.

In case you still haven't gotten the point, with the right amount of motivation (death, money, love, hatred, etc), you can do anything. I guess I get Paul when he said "if any man thinks he stands, take heed lest he falls".

Happy July 4th, if you're an American.

Ciao.

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