Posted on 09/29/2017 9:32:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The American flag, drenched in the blood of American Indians and enslaved Africans, has been romanticized as a symbol of guardianship for all citizens of this nation. One of the main centerpieces of patriotism encapsulated in the flag’s meaning is military service.
Be it the Revolutionary or Civil War, World War I or II, or any other battle in which America has fought, the argument is that the men and women who fought for this country took on a sacred sacrifice to protect American liberty and freedom from foreign enemies that would dare to endanger it. That the American flag can flap freely around the nation is an indication that its people, too, are free.
Though, as Colin Kaepernick first explained to us by kneeling during the national anthem last year, and what other NFL athletes are revealing by following suit this season, as black people, we are not free. And we never really have been.
America’s inception was never designed to accommodate the liberty and freedoms of its nonwhite people. When soldiers fought against Britain during the Revolutionary War, it was a victory for white people. The American flag was raised in victory in 1783 as its black citizens, who were still not legally full human beings at the time, continued to suffer in slavery some 80 years after the fact.
We can look at the failure of Reconstruction after the Civil War and realize that black people’s liberty evoked white people’s violence. As the flag was flown proudly during Jim Crow, white politicians worked tirelessly to suppress our votes and sanctioned our murders if we dared to cast a ballot.
In 2017, as white people stand for the national anthem, most of them sit in careless silence as police kill black and brown people and hide behind the baseless excuse of “I feared for my life.”
The problem with narratives of American patriotism is that they ignore the fact that America was and is a colonial state. Colonial powers are violent and racist by their very nature. America’s military is not a protector of peace. It is an enforcer of colonialism. Indeed, black Americans have died in America’s wars but do not fully experience the freedom that comes with that sacrifice as white people do.
Patriotism has never been a racially equitable experience because it was never designed to be.
This weekend, people voiced what they envision in the American flag. Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr asked rhetorically, “You know what else is offensive to our flag? Racism.” I applaud the spirit of his wording, but it is not historically accurate. America is racist. Its history, its culture and, if this recent election is any indicator, many of its citizens are tied to racism and the benefits it provides them.
President Donald Trump is a white supremacist and is keenly aware of the symbolism the flag represents. That is why he tweeted this morning to #StandForOurAnthem. Both the anthem and the flag are symbols of white hegemony. Freedom? Sure. For white people.
There has never been a point in U.S. history when nonwhite bodies were not under the threat of state violence. That is why black people are kneeling before the flag. It was never intended to reflect the protection of our humanity. If it were, police officers would not get away with shooting and killing black people with reckless abandon, all while wearing an American-flag patch on their uniforms.
Trump would not have won the White House if millions of patriots were not emotionally attuned to his rhetoric of “Make America great again,” which is nothing more than a death cry for people who feel their whiteness is being devalued as the country becomes more diverse.
We are seeing patriotism in action, folks. Trump is in office banning as many Muslims from entering the nation as possible, conservative state lawmakers are creating voter-suppression laws designed to keep black and Latino people from voting, and law enforcement is as murderous against nonwhite people as ever. Black blood is being spilled across the country, and white people are more than happy to support the cops doing the killing.
This is American patriotism in 2017. There is no redemption in any of it. We have to start anew. But white people are unwilling to unpack patriotism’s racist past and present because that requires them to drop their privilege and unpack themselves, and they simply choose not to do so. That is the power of white supremacy: to be able to ignore the suffering of others and not face any of the consequences.
Nothing exemplifies this better than when a white woman by the name of Sharon called C-SPAN recently to say that she can no longer watch NFL football because the players’ kneeling is “too painful” for her.
“It’s just shameful and it hurts me to see people taking a knee when we are supposed to be joyful about living in this country,” she said. “After I saw what happened [with players kneeling during the anthem], I tried to watch it and I just couldn’t because I just kept crying.”
Sharon, who said that she is a veteran, is clearly living in her own white world. But her words precisely articulate the mourning many white people are experiencing over black resistance. She didn’t address any of the issues the players are highlighting (police brutality, Trump’s racism, etc). In her own world, they are supposed to be “joyful.” Her patriotism exists in a vacuum that centers her whiteness at the expense of ignoring the violence it inflicts against our black and brown bodies. Black people and Sharon do have something in common, however: We’re all in pain right now.
The difference is that black people are suffering as we resist the flag-waving, national-anthem-singing patriotism that has always protected anti-black violence, while Sharon is crying because we can’t shut up and stand for a flag and an anthem that protect her in ways that will never protect us. Sharon will continue to cry for her patriotism. Black people will cry in mourning over the violence that her patriotism protects.
“...careless silence as police kill black and brown people....” Perhaps he ought to check out the number of Black people being killed by other Black people in Chicago, Baltimore, and DC. And none of the killers are police.
Run a search on black property ownership in the 1700’s and you will find that not all blacks we’re slaves even then. Here is one such article:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2000-04-17/news/0004180322_1_annapolis-free-blacks-early-1800s
The Root is owned by the Clintons’ mega donor Haim Saban. It’s basically DNC propaganda.
Yesterday I watched a hispanic woman rail against all this country stands for, after she took a MAGA hat from some guy that had more patience than anyone I know. She said this country was never great, and the only way to fix the problems in this country is to get rid of all the white people.
So I guess we know where we stand. This is what we get for allowing schools to stop teaching history, and civics. They began to teach selected events with no timeline or background to lead to understanding and the emphasis was on feelings instead of learning to understand the past. Even if we home schooled our children or carefully selected schools for them, the masses have been brainwashed with this garbage.
These crazy uneducated, ungrateful people have no idea what this country has done for them, I read the other day where a black woman said our flag had never done anything for black people. They will not listen, thoroughly brainwashed so I don’t see this ending well.
On Facebook the other day a poster countered this claim of police killing so many blacks with hard numbers from the FBI and DOJ. The response was those are white people’s numbers and we (blacks) know the real numbers. So good luck trying to use facts with any of them.
Liberalism is a cult, and liberals are brainwashed to a degree that I am pretty sure they will never recover from it.
They are so completely brainwashed it’s impossible to get thru to them. They are the epitome of ‘useful idiots’
What people don’t remember is that AFTER the revolution, all ‘useful idiots’ are ‘disposed of’......................
No one mentions the Union Army. I made a long post about this on comments of a news article, made the points that the actual slave ancestors of today’s blacks likely had a far different view of the flag of the United States when it was carried by the Union Army. My ancestors fought for the Union Army, one was an officer that died at Shiloh.
Since today’s blacks seem to think taking a knee is the same as actually doing something to solve problems they think exist- I asked in my post if my ancestors should have just taken a knee instead of fighting in the Civil War and wondered what they thought the outcome would have been.
My post was very civil, nothing the least bit out of line but it was deleted fairly soon. I am assuming it is not allowed to remind people about the Union Army.
“The author should spend a year in one of the many Black Majority countries in Africa. Especially one of the many such countries that is still suffering tribal warfare.”
Ever notice that the degree to which a place is a Shi* hole is directly proportional to the number of black people living there?
After becoming so much more inclusive and providing legal protections for minorities a little patriotism is very much in order.
I know you have a lot of time on your hands, but wasn't there something a little more constructive or uplifting you could find?
Articles like this do nothing but infuriate the members of this community.
Sorry, 2DV. You know me well enough by now; sometimes I just feel like if you're going to post something so inflammatory, it would be courteous to include your own opinion or a brief comment, instead of just posting a cruise missile—like some kind of "fire and forget" munitions.
Does that make any sense to you?
I’ve been here over a decade and post a lot of threads and replies, especially since my health went downhill and I became a shut-in. Tens of thousands of threads and replies. So what do you think I feel about such an article? Do you really feel I need to write a book prior to every submission?
A single comment? Why not...
Americans being defined by their enemies.
In 2017, as white people stand for the national anthem, most of them sit in careless silence as police kill black and brown people and hide behind the baseless excuse of “I feared for my life.”
White people pay police officers to serve and protect; if black and brown people are killed as part of that effort than so be it. It isn’t careless silence; I pay policemen to keep the ferals as bay.
If patriotism is only for white people, then any non-patriotic non-whites had best start making plans and tracks for moving out. The terms of the argument they present are the foundation of white genocide.
This white man intends to resist as heavily as I can.
White people are demonized as violent by those who want an excuse for violence against White people.
It is forbidden for one group, and one group only, to have race-specific organizations and representation, despite the fact that it is celebrated for every other group to have race-specific organizations and representation.
Racist drama queen.
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