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Dear Uncle Sam: A Birthday Letter to Amerikkka
Dear Uncle Sam,
You’ve never felt like an uncle. In fact, you’re actually more like a callous step-father. My whole life I’ve watched with jealousy as you’ve treated your fair-skinned children with love and affection while feeding me and your darker hued step-children ire. We’ve been made to feel unwelcome. Naturally, when your birthday comes around, things get a bit tricky.
As a child…
I grew to dislike you. Pillaging and raping the Native Americans, bullying and thieving the Mexicans, subjugating and dehumanizing my people, it’s all so disgusting. You never seemed to fully atone for these horrors. Your past was a psychological burden, making me grapple with the possibility of having been born as less than human. Property.
I saw how the sins of your past created the unwelcoming atmosphere that a five-year-old me could sense. You wanted me to place my right hand on my heart and pledge allegiance to you, even though you never seemed to have a true allegiance to anyone who isn’t fair-skinned. Just so you know, I never said the pledge out loud, and I always used my left hand. Even as a five-year-old I would not allow you to indoctrinate me.
What I did allow you to do, was inspire me. The conditions you created for my people inspired me to become an uplifting…