By: Jingwei Zhao

Independence Day honors America’s declaration of independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. Despite the deep patriotism behind the holiday, in recent years, injustices have captivated national attention, resulting in many young Americans backing out on celebrating Independence Day.

This is the case for Malaya Tapp, who grew up in Benton, Arkansas. When she was younger, she used to love watching the fireworks light up the sky on Independence Day. However, when the Black Lives Matter movement 2020 revealed the systematic nature of racial injustice in America, Tapp “lost a lot of [her] patriotic feelings.”

She takes issue with the way the holiday is celebrated, saying, “There are fireworks. It’s hard to tell the difference between guns and fireworks, and here there is always something on the news about a shooting or something, so it makes me nervous. They are also bad for the environment. They release a lot of toxic chemicals.”

In fact, she planned to opt out from celebrating Independence Day, and instead went to Navajo nation in Arizona, only to have it cancelled from a Covid outbreak. However, she is not the only American who does not want to participate on the fourth of July.

Some Americans, mainly younger ones, have been recently rethinking if they want to attend the firework celebrations of Independence Day. A survey conducted by YouGov received many answers, with only 56 percent of American adults choosing the celebrate the national holiday.

Now, there are still celebrities who do participate in the festivities, such as Post Malone, but there are other social media influencers who do not. Others have never really found the holiday enjoyable, even when they were younger, and that has stuck with them as they have grown.

For example, Marissa Vivori, a tech product manager in Manhattan, recalled a bad experience with the last time she celebrated the fourth of July. “I didn’t get a seat and I was standing in the aisle, and the toilet overflowed, and we all had to hold our bags,” she complained. That was when she realized she never really liked the holiday and remembered “feeling bad for the animals during the fireworks” as a kid.

Overall, some Americans have been trying to acknowledge that Independence Day is no longer a communal day. Connor Miskowiec, a Phoenix content creator, says, “I think a lot of people think America isn’t for everyone anymore, and so it’s not an inclusive holiday.”