The Promise of July 4th is an Elusive Dream for Many Americans

The canonization of US presidents as saints bestowed on humanity by God is an implicit cornerstone of the US doctrine of exceptionalism and indispensability. The president has become a sort of sun-king and the presidency ordained by the all-mighty. Of course, just as Jesus is misconstrued as a blonde-haired Teuton in popular depictions, so is the president, hence Trump feigns having a crop of flamboyant yellow hair. But the founding myths of the US are deeply flawed, and any attempts to tell the truth is seen by its defenders as sacrilegious.

But as US demographics shift and people of color become closer to a majority within the US, they are becoming more and more aware of their own roots and the vile history of US genocide, enslavement and exploitation used against them. Many in the white community have known this to be the case but engaged in willful denial, but they can no longer in good conscience continue to do so when modern technology allows the display of criminal abuses of people's human rights in real-time. This newfound consciousness is a profound challenge to all that white supremacists hold dear, and Trump is staging a rearguard action to preserve the myth of white supremacy, epitomized by the four figures carved into the sacred granite of the South Dakota Black Hills.

The four presidents portrayed represent iconic American heroes. Washington, father of the country;  Jefferson who penned the Declaration of Independence; Lincoln who freed the slaves, and Teddy Roosevelt who is regarded as the first modern president of the 20th century. All these are notable accomplishments. But their dark side, until recently was seldom mentioned. Both Washington and Jefferson were southerners and slave owners as much forebears of the Confederacy as they were of the Republic.

For the Lakota and Dakota people of the Sioux nation Lincoln is remembered as the president who sent 38 of their warriors to the gallows in 1862 for their crime of defending their homeland from the invasion of the US calvary. And Teddy Roosevelt gained fame for the battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, America's first imperialist war of foreign conquest.

For many Americans, whose roots on the American continent are as deep or deeper than their white oppressors, the history of the US is not the lily-white, impeccable tale of peace, freedom, and democracy, but a nightmare of racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and anti-immigrant xenophobia. It is their story that needs to be told to give substance to the true story of what made America what it is today.