As African American Patriotism Declines, So Will America

This article by Yaya J. Fanusie is posted at the 1776 Unites website, and it is well worth the read. Here are a couple of excerpts:

This is how it happened: The shift began in 2017 when the NFL kneeling protest gained the most attention, after Kaepernick was out of the league. As other players continued the gesture, President Trump called on NFL team owners to fire kneeling players on the spot (though he used a bit more colorful language). Because the media is not good with nuance, the story and debate centered on Trump vs. the Right to Protest.

Most African American sports commentators followed this cue, saying that they might not kneel during the national anthem like Kaepernick, but respected a player’s right to protest as such. Whether someone has a “right” to launch a public protest to promote a social cause at their place of employment every week is debatable, but this is when commenters started arguing that kneeling during the national anthem had nothing to do with the flag, the military, or patriotism.

But this was no more than a Jedi mind trick. This is like saying: If I turn my back to you as you’re talking to me, it has nothing to do with me paying attention to you. In fact, perhaps it is a sign of how much I am listening. I respect you so much that I choose to turn my back as a token of my attention. There’s no greater gesture of respect. This is utter nonsense, of course.

An environment is emerging where gestures of patriotism are to be second-guessed, if not avoided entirely. The Pledge of Allegiance is less popular today, and I would not be surprised if many elementary schools had ceased with patriotic songs, even before the pandemic.

Sports have always been one of the few realms that brings all Americans together. But sports media is pushing the reinterpretation of kneeling as a sign of respect; an “option B” in exhibiting patriotic love. This is illogical. If symbolic kneeling should be held with the same high esteem as standing for the flag, then how does standing mean anything? You cannot elevate one without downgrading the other. When rituals mean little to people, it’s easy to upend them on a whim. And it is clear we’re unwinding deep symbols of social cohesion at the whims of a few athletes who got woke just days ago.

American culture often takes its cue from movements in African American culture. African Americans who believed in America’s founding ideals and called on the nation to live up to them made patriotism more real for everyone. But if we keep the critique of our nation and lose the sense of universal ownership and belonging that our patriotic symbols are meant to instill, there is nothing left to stand for. And that is the beginning of the fall.

[1776unites.com]