Rewriting history: It’s time to recognise the black Americans that fought for their own freedom
History is often narrated to us by those in power. Yet those like Trump try to affirm black Americans owe their freedom to white America. I remember sitting in an underground comedy club in New York earlier this year when a black American comedian, referring to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, peered down his microphone at the audience mockingly and said: “Well as a black man, it really depends how far back you wanna go to make America great again.” Without black Americans, much of what makes America “great” would never exist. Joe Biden has never called black Americans “superpredators” as Trump claimed at the last presidential debate, but former secretary of state Hillary Clinton did and that is something that must be addressed. President Johnson would never have achieved such landmark policy changes had it not been for Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and millions of black Americans fighting for their own freedom on the streets of America while the US government violently suppressed any movement for justice.
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