Land of the free, home of the un-free

By Reyshimar Arguelles

Ever since it came into existence, the United States has been portraying itself as a beacon of democracy and fairness, a utopia where power rests in the common people and not in an arrogant monarch whose head could be easily chopped off.

But after Manifest Destiny, the annexation of Hawaii, Vietnam, Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act, and the numerous cases of violence against Blacks and Hispanics, people who still believe the US is a bastion for all things decent should stop fooling themselves.

The land of the free is nothing but a modern myth. The country has not gone past the Emancipation Declaration. And despite numerous protests, violent and non-violent, nothing profound has changed in a country that has the gall to pose as a global standard for freedom.

But it is one thing to be free, and it is a totally different thing to be an enlightened advocate of the very concept of freedom. We can see how, in the first few weeks of the CoViD-19 lockdowns throughout the country, citizens carrying high-caliber firearms would come out of their homes to protest against social distancing measures.

Indeed, you can never take away a person’s right to get a haircut or eat at a Taco Bell. These are the things people in authoritarian regimes can only dream of doing. And it would seem like the basis for living a dignified life would be the number of McDonald’s branches within the community.

Apparently, the only kind of freedom that exists in the US is the freedom to consume. The discourse on democracy is only limited towards the sustenance of a society that does not long for anything higher than self-satisfaction.

This is why it is difficult to make any sort of radical change in the United States. The mere fact that the country itself stands on a flimsy conception of freedom makes it utterly impossible to confront issues on class and race. And no doubt, Uncle Sam hasn’t even come close to defining the word “freedom” itself — not even by a mile.

I am only writing in general terms here, but ever since the death of George Floyd in the hands (or rather, under the evil knee) of an ignorant and murderous police officer, it is clear that many Americans see that the country is not facing a peace and order issue or the issue of whether or not people should be allowed to come out of their homes in the midst of a global pandemic.

Because even during a pandemic, systemic racism exists and people should keep talking about it and how it goes against everything the United States supposedly stands for. In the midst of the “Spanish” flu pandemic in 1919, a race “riot” erupted after 17-year-old Eugene Williams drowned when a group of white boys caused him to fall off from a raft in Lake Michigan. The riots, which were targeted against Black communities, would spread to other major cities in what has been known as America’s Red Summer.

Beyond 1919, numerous other incidents involving the murder of Blacks happened, proving somehow that racism is just as essential in American as the Second Amendment and Applebee’s. From Rodney King to Ahmaud Arbery to George Floyd, the United States is not the world’s greatest democracy and it never has been. It’s only slowly becoming a police state where you are only allowed to talk about democracy but not make any sort of attempt to restructure the nature of American politics in a way that encapsulates genuine discussions on class and race.

It won’t be easy, but it isn’t farfetched either. The country can still experience its very own redemption arc so long as we continue to put such issues to light and scrutinize the illusion of America’s supposed democratic superiority.