Where I stand?

Fourth of July, From Where I Stand

Being a Black woman on this Fourth of July feels complicated.

They taught us in school that July 4, 1776 was about freedom. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. But for years, my life didn’t look like that sentence. My life looked like criminalization. Like mental health crises with no safe place to land. Like credit destroyed by survival decisions — do I pay rent or do I eat? Like systems that punished me for being poor, for being sick, for being Black and a woman at the same time.

I know what it’s like to be watched in stores. To have police called for sitting too long. To fill out a rental application and know the credit check is going to bury me before I even get to the interview. To be told “you don’t look like a good fit” for jobs I was overqualified for. To be hospitalized and come out with a bill that set me back five years.

For a long time, Independence Day felt like someone else’s holiday. Fireworks for people who weren’t carrying what I carried. Parades for people who weren’t still fighting to exist without a record, without debt collectors, without a diagnosis being used against them.

But I’m still here. And today, we have caused things designed to help others.

I didn’t get here alone. Somebody fought for the Fair Housing Act before I needed it. Somebody fought for the ADA before my depression was called a disability instead of an excuse. Somebody fought to ban the box before I had to explain a misdemeanor on a job application. Somebody fought for bankruptcy protection before credit issues could keep me homeless forever.

Now I’m part of that chain.

This Fourth of July, I’m not waving a flag for 1776. I’m holding space for 2026.

Freedom isn’t a day. It’s housing. It’s healthcare. It’s a second chance after criminalization. It’s credit that can be rebuilt. It’s mental health care that doesn’t come with cuffs. It’s the right to survive and then the right to thrive.

For years, those things were a problem for living. A problem for survival.

Today, we are the solution. We cause the programs. We cause the policy changes. We cause the doors to stay open after someone else tries to shut them.

I’m a Black woman on this Fourth of July. I’ve been criminalized. I’ve been broke. I’ve been broken.

I’m also free enough now to help pull the next person through.

That’s the independence I’m celebrating.

*Cathrynmharris.