Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants, and African Americans believe the same. In the article “What Does Freedom Mean for Black America?”, they are telling us their definition of freedom and that they want equality.
From this quote in the article they say, “The answers to our questions lie within our hands. Our country will only become as good and as strong as our leadership. Our country will only become as just and as equal as each and every citizen wants it to become. We must each own our individual contributions to our current reality, however big or small, and embrace our collective power to change it. We must stand in the gap.”
African Americans define freedom based on equality because all of the things that are happening in the world right now due to police brutality and they do absolutely nothing to receive harsh treatment like being beaten, shot, and sometimes even worse than those. In the article they bring up many people who were killed and shot, like Trayvon Martin who was killed for wearing a hoodie to purchase some skittles or Eric Garner who was being choked up for nothing and shouting he can’t breathe and they wouldn’t stop. In the article they talk about African Americans being arrested for doing nothing, they are encouraging us as people to let our voices be heard, to not be afraid to speak up about something, with all this hate going on in the world we need to come together as one.
Another quote from the passage that tell us to stand together they state, “Now is the time for meaningful dialogue on the meaning of our country’s history of institutionalized racism. Now is the time to stand together in solidarity and challenge one another to transcend divisive ideologies. Now is the time to explore the root causes of our racial fears and unearth the drivers of our implicit biases.” True freedom, according to this article, is equality and speaking your mind and making a change in present day for more diversity and a difference on police brutality to black people.
