July Message From Our Founder

By Ivan Kilgore

What is the 4th of July to America’s incarcerated, homeless, black, and poor? I have been incarcerated 24 years. Prior to my imprisonment, I recall how my family, friends, and I celebrated this occasion. As a child, like any kid, I enjoyed the Roman Candle fights, Black Cats, M80s, and sparklers. There would be plenty of good food, fireworks, and stories. In school, we were taught to commemorate the so-called Founding Fathers and acknowledge the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We were being forced to drink the Kool-Aid; countless stories about their patriotism, courage, and how “we” won “our” independence from the British. The story we were being misled to believe was, the settlers in America rebelled against the imperialist forces of Great Britain to stave off exorbitant taxes and exploitation of the newfound wealth of “our” developing country. What a crock of shit! I received a “F” in American History.

I wasn’t drinking… There was another story, one that was seldom, if ever, told to little black boys like me. Britain’s prohibition against the importation and continued enslavement of Africans had prompted the colonies to rebel, as the institution of slavery was vital to their livelihood and newfound prosperity. In school, we never were taught this story or how it sparked the American Revolution. Nor were there any discussions at our family or community outings about how, in celebrating this holiday, we were commemorating our continued enslavement to the U.S. colonial forces. Very much like the two Americas (one black, the other white) this was the other story that told of a nation that vastly developed a distinct brand of imperialism and government to justify denying women, the poor, indigenous folk, and Africans the very freedoms they sought. Consequently, my ancestors would remain mere subjects of tyranny, forced into involuntary servitude to support their master’s ambitions while ensuring their continued bondage.

Today, this dynamic remains with us and has manifested itself into an exploiter’s vision of freedom. A freedom that extends itself only to those with power while creating a vast range of illusive freedoms for its subjects (I.e., “the powerless”) that hinges upon the whims and interpretations of the nation’s Constitution. Women’s rights, voter suppression, state sanctioned violence, police brutality, and the imprisonment of millions of poor citizens, including myself, are but few examples that attest to this very fact. Consequently, this begs of us to contemplate: What measure of freedom or unfreedom have we achieved? To this end, my almost three decades of incarceration has allowed me to place freedom under a microscope. For years, I have carefully examined the American ideal of freedom in all its secular, spiritual, and intellectual forms. For example, my experiences with the criminal legal system have afforded me the opportunity to observe the unfreedoms, constraints, coercion, and contradictions of American idealism (I.e., freedom, liberty and justice). Every day, innocent people die in prison. Here, I observe how the inherent nature and characteristics of America’s brand of democracy creates structural poverty, racist policy, and a lack of access to healthcare and education. Consequently, the criminogenic conditions that come from this political gamesmanship is criminal in and of itself.

In the name of freedom, justice and equality, I witness how those incarcerated in American prisons are poor, intentionally undereducated, and made powerless returning citizens of underserved communities circumscribed by political arrangements derived from the Founder’s expressed intent. An intent codified in the Constitution, laws, and subsequent institutions birthed of unfreedom. How far have we come? It would be rhetorical to answer such a question in face of the fact that women, the poor, indigenous folk, African Americans, and other people of color, remain infected by the shadows of the elite who fought for their independence. The legacy they built America on (n.b., slavery, misogyny, Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, mass incarceration, etc.) veiled itself in the name of freedom and democracy for them and not us. Here, I think about that little boy who, at the tender age of seven, tragically experienced a Roman Candle backfiring, sending a burning flame into his chest.

Today, when I touch the scars, the trauma invokes a faint scent of gunpowder, the burning sensation of pain, and reflection upon a time in my life when it began to become apparent to me that the intent of commemorating the 4th of July was to keep people in bondage. That we continue to drink the Kool-Aid and ignore the injustices we had in the name of freedom, is a testament that we remain politically immature as a nation and as a people. That said, will you join us in this fight to build awareness? Volunteer today! Donate!