Of National Holidays and National Myths

As we roll into an Independence Day weekend where many locations in the US are approaching (or have exceeded) President Biden’s goal of 70% of the eligible population having received at least their first vaccine shot, allowing some level of gatherings and public celebrations…Fox News has ginned up right wing outrage over critical race theory, driving some governors and local parents to lose their damn minds.

Critical race theory, for those of you who have sensibly been ignoring Fox News, is, at its most basic level, an academic theory, taught mostly at the grad school level, that posits that racism isn’t just some bad actions by some bad individuals, it’s systemic. Due to our national history of racist laws and practices, it affects our systems and institutions right now and in ways that may not always be easy to spot because they’re so ingrained.

Contrary to the “but you’re trying to tell my kid that she’s a racist and there’s nothing she can do about it” freak out, CRT argues the opposite – racism, at least the kind that really does damage, isn’t primarily an individual thing, but rather is about larger scale issues. It takes the burden OFF little Mason and Emma and puts it where it belongs – on systems and institutions (that we all need to work to fix together).

What Fox and its ilk are REALLY objecting to is America growing up as a country, moving beyond our adolescent “I’m awesome, everyone else is stupid, and I never do anything wrong” phase into a more mature, nuanced understanding of our history, seeing BOTH the good AND the bad that we’ve done, celebrating the first, owning the second, and working to fix the after-effects. Because if you can’t even acknowledge that you’ve done wrong, you’ll never get to being able to make amends for it.

The Founding Fathers – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry – were brave, wise, visionary men. Who were also enslavers. Being honest about that doesn’t mean they didn’t lead the Revolution, write the Declaration of Independence, write the Federalist Papers, or famously proclaim (perhaps lacking some self-awareness) “Give me liberty, or give me death!” But they also weren’t gods.

Is it perhaps excessive to ask that nothing be named after them? Sure – but this is the US, we’re a nation of extremes. (It’s NOT extreme to ask that nothing be named for Confederate traitors.)

Acknowledging that our form of government was strongly informed by the Iroquois nation, that the Africans who were captured and put into forced labor (aka “plantations”) were knowledgeable engineers and experienced farmers, that the Civil War (or Reconstruction, or the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, or Black Lives Matter) didn’t fix everything doesn’t make us weaker – it makes us stronger as a nation.

Indeed, as a terrific Twitter thread from Jamelle Bouie today demonstrates, learning ALL of history can actually give you a greater appreciation for people who learned, grew, changed, saw the error of their ways and did something about it. And if all you take is the simple myths that the Founding Fathers were perfect, that the enslaved were “workers,” that the Civil War was about states’ rights, that the GI Bill was for everyone, that urban Black neighborhoods are under-served and under-resourced due to the personal choices of their residents (same thing with the over-representation of Black people, especially young Black men, in the criminal justice system and the racial wealth gap), you never learn those stories.

Insisting on the WHOLE truth of our history, figuring out where we’ve gone wrong so we can ACT to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice, is the most patriotic thing you can do.

To quote the great Jame Baldwin:

“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

So this weekend, while you’re hugging family or friends you may not have hugged in 18 months, grillin’ and chillin’, take at least a few minutes to educate yourself about ALL of our history and update your understanding of our national myths to something that, while a little less “U-S-A! U-S-A!” is a lot more accurate. The 1691 Project, flaws and all, is a great place to start. Or, as always, Baldwin.

Like what you read? Follow me on Twitter @MrsWhatsit1.