Happy White People's Independence Day. To paraphrase Chris Rock, "The slaves weren't free, but I'm sure they enjoyed fireworks."

Black people have their own Independence Day. It's a holiday (it should be a federal one) called Juneteenth—celebrated June 19—that acknowledges the day that slaves in Texas got word from white folks that they weren't slaves anymore, two years after the fact. Meanwhile, the South still reps and flies their "Flag of Losers"—as Killer Mike called the Confederate flag recently—knowing damn well it's the white-supremacy bat signal, the banner of a nation that would be founded "upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man."

So after those terrorist killings at Mother Emanuel in South Carolina, people couldn't help but notice that the stars and bars still flew over the state's capitol. Walmart suddenly announced they'd stop selling Confederate flag–branded merchandise, so nobody would think they condone racist murderers. You know when a good time to make that point would've been? When the police killed John Crawford in their store for carrying a BB gun—while he was on the phone with the mother of his kids—because a scared white man called 911.

Then Amazon stops selling Confederate flag merchandise, too, after Mayor Ed Murray subbed them? Why sell those things anyway? Probably because America, including the Great Pacific Northwest, is full of racist white people who'd buy that shit. Even the General Lee's getting repainted! Even though we grew up on that show—hiphop still loves Daisy Dukes—we all knew we'd have kept driving if we'd seen a sign that said "Hazzard County." It took this long, this much, to light a fucking fire under this symbol; even Lynyrd fucking Skynyrd retired their rebel flag a decade ago.

MJG and Lil Jon burned the Confederate banner on their album covers. David Banner was draped in a shredded flag as he raced through a graveyard from unseen pursuers. Double agent Kanye West sold Yeezus tour jackets with the stars and bars on the arm. Surprisingly, nobody's called him on that recently. He's like a light-skinned slave, still in the motherfuckin' house.

This week, you'll possibly be barbecuing. You're gonna need tunes. Vince Staples's stupid fiery Summertime '06 and Cam the Mac's banging Chef Killa both go, as does To Pimp a Butterfly—your party can try to re-create the cover's White House lawn party. Just don't re-create the Pennsylvania Avenue cluck scene from the cover of the Geto Boys' great 1998 Da Good Da Bad & Da Ugly. Crack is wack and, like the White House, a tool of white supremacy.

Now a prayer. From that album's "Eye 4 an Eye," in the words of the Honorable Willie D: "I'ma say this shit one time and one time only—we ain't against all white people! But we are against all white people that's against us. Fuck ALL you muthafuckas! Fuck the jail cells, fuck the mangy-ass dogs, fuck the chewing tobacco, fuck the Confederate flag, and fuck your militias, your shotguns in the back of your pickups!" recommended