Freedom is being able to do something freely. It is also, the right to act according to ones will without being held up by the power of others. Freedom can also be defined as the capacity to determine your own choices. I can give many definitions about freedom, and all of them can be the right definition; it’s just how you put it.
There are four freedoms; freedom of speech, religion, fear, and freedom of want. Freedom has been rallying call for reformers and revolutionaries throughout human history. Ask anyone, and they will tell you that they want to be free. When asked to define what freedom means, people usually have a difficult time coming up with a concrete definition. The common answer of “freedom means doing whatever I want, whenever I want,” generates many conflicting questions. In my own opinion, freedom is very important, because it gives me the rights and privileges that make my life so much better. I am free to speak my mind and do many other things as I please.
When we think about freedom, no one tells you how many kids you can have, or if your child is a boy he must die, if a girl she can live. No one puts walls up to keep us contained within any boundaries. We also have a chance to worship the God of our choice in the way we choose. We are free to travel or stay at home. We are also free to raise our children in the way we want them to be brought up. These facts are not bad at all. After all, we are free to basically do whatever we want. We are free to kill someone, but then, we’re not. It is a consequence that you have to pay; jail time or death sentence. This brings me back to the 20th century, when Emmett Till was murdered for talking to a white woman. Although he spoke to the white woman in a different way, he did not deserve to be lynched. Especially, being that he was only a fourteen year old boy; black or white. The white men responsible for his death were freed. ‘You be the judge of that.’
In the 20th century, freedom was big to the black community, although they didn’t have much of it; at all. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the biggest African American leaders, in history, to help build blacks freedom. Also, he helped segregation become “desegregation.” I can go on and on about how he helped black people and the society, but that’s not the point of this matter. Dr. King gave many of speeches, and they all had something to do with freedom. “I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law,” “…let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom…by drinking from the cup of bitterness or hatred,” “Let freedom ring, and when this happens...when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual, free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.” In these quotes, Dr. King was crying out for help, and acknowledgement. ‘We are all equal, slavery days are over, so why aren’t we free?’
I think about a few people I know when it comes to freedom. Two of them are my grandmother and my uncle. My grandmother always spoke of her childhood days, and how terrible blacks were treated back then. Of course I listened, because I was curious to know what she thought in her own words. Not only what she thought, but how she felt. “Hell, I wanted to be free,” she said. How ironic is that? She felt what a lot of black kids were feeling at the time, and because of segregation, this was impossible. My uncle is currently serving time in jail, he has to serve sixteen years in prison; he’s already served about nine years so far. When he gets out, he will be “free,” but then again, he won’t. Let’s think about this. Although he is out of jail, he doesn’t have the freedom to do what he would usually do, any longer. A lot comes involved, like a parole officer, or maybe even wearing some type of detecting device. There’s no freedom in that.
Another fact I will like to mention, is when a black person throws the term “nigga” around, this is only showing other races that it is alright to use this term whenever they please. After all, we do have freedom of speech. I must admit, I do use this term daily, it’s a bad habit, but when you think about it, anyone and everyone uses the term throughout everyday life. From the rappers to the singers, radio hosts, maybe even politics; who knows. We all use this unsatisfying word. Obviously we can’t control other people’s actions. Can we make a law not to use this word? Sounds impossible, but it doesn’t hurt to try. “Wassup my nigga,” “Nigga, please,” “Where dat nigga at?” These are all phrases used by everyone. Whether you’re black, white, Hispanic, whatever your nationality is, you have the right to say this word, because the black people say it to you, so that gives you the right to say it whenever you want, right? Wrong! No one should use this term. When will it stop being used? We will probably never know, but I’m willing to find out.
Since this is a freedom essay, and I have the right to say what I want, and I have the right to express myself and my feelings. Let’s talk about “the negroes.” Are we free? Many of us believe we are, and there are those who don’t. ‘On paper we are free, but not in practice.’ Ignorance is still sticking to some of us. If I were to go to a neighborhood with the society being all white people, there’s a 99 percent chance that they are going to look at me different, and stare so hard to the point where I’m no longer comfortable. Why is this? ‘They choose not to learn ignorance.’ Some of you will read or listen to this essay, and think I am bitter and don’t care, but I’m not. I’m just speaking the truth and its right, because the truth outlasts a lie.
