Should blacks celebrate the 4th of July?

So I was reading a document in my history book for class, and the document (which I haven't finished reading yet as I have gotten side tracked) is written by Frederick Douglass who posed the question "what is the 4th of July to a slave" (well he didn't use those exact words).

And I realized something...black people celebrating the 4th of July is almost the same as a Native American celebrating Thanksgiving.

Of course for indians they probably do not celebrate July 4th either for slightly but ultimately similar reasons as black people.

But if you look, you will see many blacks celebrate this and thanksgiving (which you could also argue is a day blacks should not celebrate either) but you will only see far and few Indians celebrate these two holidays.

The question is why? There is no real answer other than the Indians and the blacks have had different experiences in America. The blacks were enslaved. The Indians were not but they were kicked out of their lands multiple times. Blacks do not live in reservations while most Native Americans do. Blacks kind of assimilated more into White culture than the Native Americans. While Blacks are highly underrepresented in the entertainment industry, Native Americans are even more underrepresented, in fact I would not be surprised if Indians from India are represented more. But blacks had to deal with Jim Crow, Indians did not.

For blacks, what does Thanksgiving and the 4th of July mean, or used to mean? Well Frederick Douglass argued why it was dumb for him to celebrate the 4th of July. Slavery was still happening and those so called rights do not apply to him or other slaves. And in today's time blacks are still treated like second class citizens.

Thanksgiving simply represents the fact that all these Europeans who came over brought along slaves, even if slavery was different than Post-Revolutionary war slavery, it was slavery nonetheless.

But the reasons for a black person to not celebrate these holidays is nowhere as deep of a reason for Native Americans.

Today almost everyone who celebrates these holidays could care less about the history behind it. Holidays exist only as an excuse for some to get drunk, for no school (or work depending on your career), to pig out on food, to maybe see family and etc. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days, because I like November and I like Autumn, and I love turkey and mashed potatoes. Almost all holidays today are consumer holidays, even Christmas. Maybe its a good thing for at least the 4th of July and Thanksgiving that the meaning of these days are somewhat forgotten.

But I must say its annoying when white people say you are being "unpatriotic" for not celebrating the 4th of July...I noticed that white peoples' brand of "patriotism" is actually dangerous for America, because its full of ignorance and hate. I personally only like eating hotdogs and seeing fireworks on the 4th of July, I honestly do not care for the holiday itself or for that matter its meaning. I didn't even celebrate it this year, its a throw-away holiday for me, heck I despise Valentine's Day yet give that holiday more recognition than the 4th of July.