Race and politics are two very funny things. Since I have an interest in both, it probably isn’t much of a surprise that I started thinking about how the two often intertwine.
(Just to get this out of the way, I will not talk about Michelle Obama’s quote.)
I’ll use enough words without including basic facts, so I’ll leave those out and begin with patriotism. I will admit that the first time I heard the national anthem after 44 was elected, it sounded a little bit different than it ever did before. Still does. I don’t think it’s out of line or inaccurate to say that many black people feel the same way I do - about the anthem itself and the country in general. I’ve always been among the first to say that the overall effects of Barack Obama’s election are overstated, but at the same time I realize that the election gave many black people a pride in this country that they’ve never felt before. The election hasn’t really done anything monumental, but it has had some positive effect.
For many of us, America was just the country that we lived in before 2008. We didn’t have this pride that we always saw white people display. Flags hanging from our houses and cars: that wasn’t us (with the possible exception of the 9/11 aftermath).
Why would it have been? We lived with the slavery and effects for hundreds of years. We still fight these things today, and likely will for years to come. Why would we be proud of a country that (in practice) considered us sub-human until the 1960s? A country that allowed its leaders - especially at local levels - to have their charges turn hoses and dogs on us: to bomb us, to burn us, to lynch us? Where was the pride supposed to come from? The fact that we survived it all and are still here making valuable contributions to society? That’s not something to have pride in America about: that pride is rightly preserved for ourselves.
Many white people don’t seem to get this. “It’s the greatest country in the world”…sure it is, if you actually have the freedoms and privileges all those documents say you should have. If you don’t, then its greatness is sharply reduced. “You all have the same opportunity now”…I’ll believe that when black people are hired and paid at the same clip as white people, when the educational divide becomes non-existent, when I can drive home at night without being tailed by cops. I’ll believe it then. Now? Not a chance: and one of the supposed greatest things about the country is a big part of why.
Part of the design of capitalism is that someone has to fail. If everyone succeeds or achieves at the same level, what you have is more akin to socialism or communism. It’s patently obvious who the founding fathers set up for failure, so I’ll skip spelling it out. Let’s just say there’s a reason that there’s a reason certain inequalities and injustices have always been in place and will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
One of the basic tenets of capitalism is that someone will rise to the top. Well, you can’t have a top without a bottom. If you don’t have anything pushing you toward the bottom, then of course you’re not going to have as many problems with capitalism. The marriage of our economic system and our sordid history has placed us in a position where the advantaged can love it freely while the disadvantaged can, at best, tolerate it.
Still, many among the advantaged (read: white people) give the disadvantaged a hard time concerning their love/hate relationship with the United States. “You’re not a real American”, “you don’t respect the ideas this country was founded on”, “I picked myself up by my bootstraps, why can’t you”…depending on the perspective from which they base their ideas on the first two points, they’re exactly right. It amazes me how soon we forget this country’s history and the hypocrisy therein. The third pretty much speaks for itself, as it is often discussed in racial matters concerning economic divides. In many ways, we’re still behind the enemy lines that Ice Cube talked about in Higher Learning. Obama’s election did not change that.
What Obama’s election did was give a group of people a sense of pride that they did not have before: not within ourselves, for that was already there. We gained a sense of pride in this country, one that we hope will increase as the U.S. further learns to embrace the change which will soon consume it. Of course there are still obstacles, both old and new. The old need no introduction, but the new may need mention: the radical elements of the right wing (most importantly, its electoral success in the last cycle), the continued movement toward a dual economy, the push toward private/for-profit education…these and so many more concepts and realities will stand in the way of the U.S. reaching its full potential.
This country will not reach its full potential until black people have a love for it that is comparable to that which others have. That said, black people should feel in no way responsible to provide that love until America fulfills the promises made almost 235 years ago. As is, many of us should hate the status quo and should not feel a responsibility to champion a nation that still treats us as though we’re second-class. I think our dignity and character have shown us to be willing partners in the process of improving this nation. Time will tell if everyone else is willing to do the same.
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