What would a Declaration of Independence rooted in belonging seem like?
This opinion piece was initially printed by The nineteenth.
It’s not misplaced on me as a Black lady, as we strategy the USA’ 250th birthday, that I’m writing a couple of democracy I might not have been thought-about part of because it was declared by our unique founders. As a result of I consider the work of the American Revolution is ongoing, I’ve thought-about what it would seem like to incorporate these initially not noted of our origin story.
What united us in 1776 was the concept that a rustic will be outlined not by territory or id, however by a shared perception that freedom and equality are human rights. What should convey us collectively now’s a dedication to creating that concept actual for all of us. With out belonging, there will be no true democracy. This second requires us to affirm that dedication. It’s on this spirit that I supply a brand new declaration.
Declaration of Belonging
Adopted July 4, 2026, on the 250th Anniversary of the USA
When a folks lengthy denied full dignity and democracy converse in unison, it turns into essential to demand the reality: about who we’re, who we will be and who we refuse to be any longer.
We declare this as an act of restore — to not dissolve our political bonds, however to remake them within the picture of fairness and belonging.
We deal with this declaration to the nation now we have constructed, defended, challenged and reimagined, typically with out recognition, in an age of erasure and exclusion.
We do that on behalf of those that have carried this nation ahead: girls, males and folks throughout the gender spectrum; the descendants of the enslaved and the survivors of colonization; Indigenous folks, who’re the unique inhabitants of this land, and immigrants who select to make America their house; disabled folks; caregivers and caretakers; employees and dreamers.
We had been excluded from our founding, however we had been by no means absent from the story. At the moment, we declare our belonging as a essential step within the unfinished work of freedom and of a really consultant democracy.
We maintain these truths to be made, not given:
That each one persons are created equal.
That our humanity is just not conditional — not on wealth, whiteness, gender or citizenship.
That freedom should embody security, dignity and sovereignty.
That democracy is barely actual when it’s formed by and utilized to all of us.
That governments derive their legitimacy solely once they defend the rights of all, not some.
When energy is proscribed, rights are denied and fact is silenced, it’s not solely the best, however the obligation of the folks to demand extra and to construct higher.
We subsequently identify the abuses which have introduced us right here:
- the criminalization and mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities;
- the compelled removing and cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples;
- the denial of bodily autonomy and reproductive justice;
- the exclusion of ladies and nonbinary folks from equal pay, energy and security;
- the suppression of voting rights;
- the erosion of civil rights beneath the pretense of progress;
- the neglect of disabled folks and their entry to management and humanity;
- the surveillance and harassment of immigrants, organizers and people focused due to who they’re and the way they converse;
- the systemic underfunding of training and healthcare;
- the violence of persistent poverty in a nation of maximum wealth.
A nation that celebrates freedom whereas enabling its denial, that claims equality whereas legislating exclusion, stays separate and unequal.
A nation that renders Black girls invisible ignores a elementary fact: Black girls are important to realizing a extra good union.
We make these claims after generations who’ve marched, written, voted, protested, served and sacrificed for a democracy that didn’t absolutely acknowledge them.
We have now constructed this nation’s wealth whereas being denied its guarantees.
We have now defended this nation whereas being handled as enemies inside it.
We have now fed its households, raised its kids, healed its sick and informed its tales — whilst our personal tales had been erased.
Black girls have sustained this democracy — have formed it, expanded it and secured it.
As voters, visionaries, organizers, caregivers and truth-tellers, Black girls have helped outline the circumstances beneath which freedom may very well be claimed, not just for ourselves, however for all.
We have now completed this on the intersections of race, gender, class and citizenship not as separate struggles, however as a lived actuality that required us to see what others couldn’t, and to construct what didn’t but exist.
And nonetheless, we present up wherever energy is contested and reimagined.
The work of belonging — not illustration alone, however inclusion with energy — is the inheritance of Black girls. And it’s work that calls all of us.
We should all subsequently declare, within the identify of a future worthy of our ancestors and our descendants:
That freedom can’t be partial.
That fairness can’t be symbolic.
That justice delayed remains to be justice denied.
We declare our independence and our interdependence as a individuals who refuse to be divided, diminished or dismissed.
We pledge to inform the reality.
We pledge to honor those that carried us.
We pledge to construct methods rooted not in extraction and exclusion, however in care, restore and accountability.
We aren’t the unique founders of this nation.
We’re the perfecters of our union.
We declare:
We have now at all times belonged.
And the work of freedom will likely be completed.
Errin Haines is founder and editor-at-large of The nineteenth, the nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom covers the intersection of ladies, politics and coverage. Named after the U.S. Structure’s nineteenth Modification, its mission is to encourage the participation and illustration of marginalised folks in democracy. Haines’ profession contains senior positions on the Related Press, The Washington Submit, The Los Angeles Occasions and as an everyday on-air contributor for MSNBC. She has served as Ferris Professor at Princeton College, educating a category on the position of race within the 2020 election and has additionally taught lessons on the Institute of Politics and Public Service at Georgetown College.
Associated
