July Fourth: I see America’s untidy history in my White father and Black grandfather

This article was originally published in the Raleigh News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer.

The Fourth of July is a great excuse to light up the sky with fireworks in a patriotic promise of freedom. But we aren’t truly celebrating the “land of the free.”

Every day, I and so many others are working to ensure fairness and equity in our workplaces and communities — working to fulfill promises made for people in America. Because when Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal” and “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,” he didn’t really mean “all men” — and definitely not “all people.”