By Marlene L. Johnson
“For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country...” These words spoken by Michelle Obama on the campaign trail in Milwaukee, Wisc. last February caused a firestorm of criticism from the rabid press who inferred that her words meant she was not patriotic. I believe the exact opposite is true. It is precisely because she is patriotic that she made this statement.
In expressing pride in her country in that way, Michelle Obama shines the light on the America’s promise of “liberty and justice for all” which too many Americans have yet to experience. She is speaking from the prism of the black experience in this country.
Its promise is extended to all, but many never experience the American dream because they’re black, poor, immigrant. This promise rings hallow when juxtaposed against the poverty, injustice and inequality too many Americans experience.
Mrs. Obama was expressing pride in America with her words, but many journalists question her statement because she said “for once.” Some folks took cheap shots by attacking and parsing certain words and demonizing the messenger rather than hearing and understanding the message. What Mrs. Obama said doesn’t mean that she is not patriotic.
Throughout history in this country, blacks have been patriotic despite oppressive treatment. America has prospered on the backs of those who survived the Middle Passage, were put in chains, and then auctioned off like so much cattle. Still, blacks show their patriotism every day even by just putting on their “armor” and facing a world that often is hostile, sometimes subtly, sometimes not. Blacks have a history of being patriotic. Even when Blacks…
- Built this country while suffering the lash of racism;
- Fought to get into the military which didn’t want them, to fight America’s enemies, real and perceived, even while being kept apart from white soldiers;
- Were denied the right to vote and the right to liberty
they were patriotic.
Blacks sometimes showed their patriotism by using their God-given talents on behalf of their country—America. Some black athletes and members of the military offer an excellent example of the intersection between being black and American and being patriotic.
- The Tuskegee Airmen who flew during WWII even though it was thought that black men couldn’t fly. This group of determined commissioned officers and enlisted young men became America’s first black military airmen, although it was thought that black men lacked intelligence, skill, courage and patriotism. Each one showed patriotism overseas while suppressing internal rage from humiliation and indignation caused by racism and bigotry experienced at home. They flew sorties and reportedly never lost a plane.
- Jesse Owens brought home the gold in the1936 Olympics in Berlin to a segregated America giving a magnificent athletic performance despite a barrage of racial epithets and the ever present red and black swastika. Hitler who viewed blacks as inferior and “non-human” was miffed at the U.S. for allowing blacks to participate in the 1936 Olympics. Owens made Hitler eat his words, bringing home four gold medals.
- Tommy Smith and John Carlos black-fisted the air to salute their heritage and the struggles of blacks for justice in America during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City after winning gold and bronze medals in the 200 meters track and field event. Prior to the Olympics Carlos and Smith issued this statement as part of a group of amateur black athletes who organized the Olympic Project for Human Rights and called for a boycott.
“We must no longer allow this country to use a few so-called Negroes to point out to the world how much progress she has made in solving her racial problems when the oppression of Afro-Americans in is greater than it ever was. We must no longer allow the sports world to pat itself on the back as a citadel of racial justice when the racial injustices of the sports world are infamously legendary… any black person who allows himself to be used in the above matter is a traitor because he allows racist whites the luxury of resting assured that those black people in the ghettos are there because that is where they want to be. So we ask why should we run in Mexico only to crawl home?”
In accepting their medals the two wore black gloves and black socks to represent black poverty, but no shoes. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride while Carlos wore beads for blacks who no one said a prayer for after they were lynched and those thrown off the side of boats in the middle passage.
“We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight,” Smith later said. He was right. Amongst blacks it was much talked about and understood.
Rather than trying to understand the symbolism, most of white America was outraged at the two for “disrespecting” the Star Spangled Banner.
But I would argue that it is their patriotism that caused each of these individuals to embrace America even while America held them at arms length, denying their humanness, equating them to 3/5 of a person; denying their liberty, denying their right to vote, denying equal opportunity in education, housing, public accommodations, jobs and income.
It’s time for white folks to stop hiding their heads in the sands of time to assuage their inherited guilt for what their ancestors did as this country was founded and as it prospered.
It’s time for white folks to stop saying “I didn’t do anything to any blacks. My family didn’t own slaves. I am not racist. It’s not my fault. What do they want anyhow?”
It’s time for white folks to understand that just as blacks still suffer from the vestiges of enslavement, they still suffer from the syndrome of white privilege put in place by the institution of slavery and the era of Jim Crow.
It’s time for white folks to stop calling blacks “racists” for pointing to the disparities blacks still suffer in America.
In a political sermon forcefully attacking the white culture—“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”—first delivered on July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass used the typical form used by black preachers. So, too did Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in preaching messages of social justice and against poverty.
Both Wright and King put out a clarion call for America to live up to its promise. It’s time America did.
