The best way I can characterize my American patriotism is like that of an abusive relationship and I am suffering from battered woman syndrome. I strive to love and embrace my country, lured in by its promise of security, hope and change when at random moments it turns on me and blackens my eye, tears at my esteem and then promises to do better next time; a codependent cycle of excuses, forgiveness and then re-victimization. To characterize my patriotism in this way may seem harsh to some who don’t understand or can’t empathize with my position, but as great a country as this is, I would be remiss to ignore its inherent flaws. As Brother El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz once said, “You are not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality.” To call my country out on its ills is not being unpatriotic, it’s forcing the acknowledgment and accountability for the contradictions upon which she was founded. Contradictions that still function to preserve the inequities experienced by people of color today.
A quote by James Baldwin from “Notes of a Native Son” probably best summarizes my position on patriotism as an African American:
“I love America more than any other country in this world, and exactly for this reason I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
That, my fellow patriots, I will most certainly do.
Three African American Soldiers Courtesy of National Archives