Independence Day
Happy (belated) Independence Day! Did you enjoy the fireworks of last Saturday? I did! The scene along the Hudson River and Westside Highway was incredible. There were millions of people trying to get to the river and standing along 1oth and 11th avenues just see the fireworks. People of all nationalities, religions, couples, families, drivers, pedestrians, et. al. were all there. It was an amazing sight to see! I couldn’t help but feel very moved by all the people that gathered along the west side of Manhattan and by the fireworks.
At the end of it, I felt mixed emotions of national pride and anger. The night before the 4th, I was out helping some friends celebrate their birthdays which were a few days a part. We went from one place to another and getting treated differently every time. We wound up beginning the night at a very nice bowling place on 42nd street. A few of my friends were already there, when I arrived and they told me that when they first got there the waitress told them they can just go to the bar if they want anything after they asked if she was taking orders. So, when more of us arrived it seemed really puzzling why she became so attentive to our group. Was it because with a bigger group she would get a bigger tip, or because she didn’t wantto wait on two black women? I think it was the former not the later, but one of my friends thought otherwise.
Our group of eight plans to go to a club where another friend is going to celebrate her birthday. Half of us get in one cab, the other in another. One cab gets to the club before and they’re just able to walk inside with no trouble. They said there was no line and they walked in. We get there later because our cabbie takes a high traffic route. There’s a lot of people standing outside on 27th street and 5th avenue. There are two lines: one for reservations and one for non-reservations. We get one the reservatins line not knowing that is what it was for then we’re told to get on the non-reservations line. We get on that line and get to the front of the line and are told that they’re not letting people up without reservations and to try again another night. We noticed that a lot of the white people on the line got in without a problem even if they were standing on the non-reservation line. Some of the girls on that line were dressed slutty, some of the guys were bummy looking, and they got in; people of color were not being let in. It took a while for us to figure out what we were going to do because there was a group of about 15 of us at this point in the night. We decided to go to a place in the Meat Packing District. It was long wait but we got in. The place was playing great music and it was packed inside.
I know that was a long story but it just brings to mind how far American has to go before everyone truly feels that they really are American. I’m born and raised here in New York City. I’m also of African descent. The way I’ve been treated since the day I could leave the house by myself has made me feel like I’m unwanted in the only place that I know is home. I’m happy to have begun my life in a country where I am afforded rights and opportunities fought for by the generations before mine. It’s the everyday interactions with people in this city and hearing stories on the news that make it a little difficult for me, and other people who feel the same way as I do, to call ourselves American. We go by African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic-American, and so on. When people overseas think of Americans they don’t think of the diversity in this country, they think of white people who are Protestant, Baptist, or Catholic. They don’t think of people of color who are Buddhist, Muslim, or Atheist.
I’m glad that I got to see a moment in American and New York City history where people of different origins, racial and religious backgrounds come together and enjoy the day that America won its independence from Great Britain, and that there seemed to me that there was no trouble. Everyone cooperated with each other and the police. Strangers sat side-by-side to each other on the street and looked up in the sky at the bright and colorful celebration.
