The RAGE Report: Issue #7

July 4, 2025: All the women who independent, throw your hands up at me.

Get mad, stay mad, make jokes.

Happy 4th of July, I guess. If you’re like me (read: Black) you celebrated America’s real Independence Day, Juneteenth, commemorating the last of the enslaved people being finally freed, last month. July 4 is just an excuse to take off work, barbecue some wieners, and buy a bunch of discounted crap—an excuse I am fine with, but there’s precious little freedom to commemorate this year.

The Trump administration is seeing to that, handily, with a lot of help from the Supreme Court, congressional Republicans, and do-nothing/tow-the-line Democrats. Doubtless, you’ll see a lot of white folks brandishing Old Glory with a pride at odds with the crackdown of civil liberties for non-white, non-citizens. But what are they celebrating, exactly?

Is it the “Big Beautiful Bill” that will strip them of any social safety net while further enriching the wealthiest in the nation? Is it a president who claims to fight for them but does everything in his rapidly expanding power to screw them over? Is it their country’s involvement in multiple wars that seemingly have no end in sight? Is it the resurgence of America’s oldest and most persistent religion, white supremacy?

Yeah, that’s it.

That’s always it. The whitest of white Americans will always cut off their nose to spite their face if it means reaffirming their place atop the racial hierarchy that has kept this country from truly realizing its goal of absolute freedom. Which is why Independence Day is a joke, and it has never been more cruelly ironic than it is now.

Let’s spread the rage.