It’s time to speak apologetically to Black America’s emotional wounds

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ISLAMABAD, July 5 (online): This opinion piece discusses racial battle fatigue, a reality for many Black Americans, in the context of July 4 and calls for a commitment to radical healing by the wider society.

In the United States, July 4 marks the formal adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress in 1776.

It is well known that while America was embracing this conceivably unifying social contract, almost all Black Americans were still enslaved. These cognitively dissonant realities have been the subject of numerous essays, books, speeches, and artistic expressions.

Extant writings focus largely on Black Americans’ espoused conflicts over commemorating this now more than 242-year-old holiday. Although these works detail important sources of conflicting feelings about July 4, they inadvertently reify stereotypical depictions of Black Americans as less patriotic.

Such depictions are notably challenging to reconcile with Black America’s civic engagement “receipts.”

For example, less patriotic people do not serve in the military, fight in wars to protect embryonic democracies, pay taxes, exercise their voting rights, or risk their NFL careers to symbolically hold America accountable for its social contract breaches.

According to Dr. Helen Neville and colleagues, radical healing is a collective approach to addressing the root causes of emotional injuries leading to poor health outcomes.

Such an approach suggests that the healing work should be shared.

It affirms that the emotional well-being of our nation is judged largely by the emotional well-being of people operating at its margins. Radical healing is village work that recognizes that our fates are linked intergenerationally, and if we refuse to do the work, our children’s children and their children will be forced to.

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