07/05/2026
It feels like patriotism has been taken away from a lot of people.
Over the last several years, the American flag, the Fourth of July, and even saying you’re proud to be an American have become so closely associated with the 47th president and his accompanying red hat movement that a lot of non- white males, especially Black Americans, have felt like those symbols no longer belong to us. I don’t accept that.
I don’t have an orange tree in my backyard like Vic Mensa . But he inspired this.
I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few days. Today is Sunday July 5th and we are cleaning up after our annual Fourth of July party, pulling cilantro leaves one by one, and realizing America has always held contradictions. This country has done some deeply painful things. Slavery, segregation, redlining, discrimination, and injustice aren’t footnotes. They’re woven into our history, and they’re still shaping the present.
Black American culture was also born here. My family was built here. Our music, our food, our language, our faith, our businesses, our activism, and our resilience are part of the American story. My ancestors helped build this country, often without recognition, and every generation since has pushed it closer to the ideals it promised on paper.
I’m proud to be an African American. I’m also proud that my family’s story is part of America’s story. Those ideas strengthen each other because our fingerprints are on this country just as much as anyone else’s.
That’s the America I want my kids to inherit. One where every person gets to claim this country, celebrate it, improve it, hold it accountable when it falls short, and believe they belong here too.
