Starry-Eyed: A Critical Reflection of American Patriotism

Every fourth of July, star-spangled flags wave roundly in the breeze. Across the country, people parade through the streets and light firecrackers, and watch them explode. From childhood, we’re taught to love America in a blind and unchallenged infatuation: patriotism. Through culture, education, and media, patriots are often depicted as soldiers and government leaders—people who, by occupation, are supposed to protect the country. Likewise, stereotypical patriotism has largely become protective and defensive. Throughout history, Americans have used defensive patriotism as justification for systemic flaws. After all, a patriotically-perfect country can’t have more vices than virtues, right?

On January 6th, white supremacists and nationalists stormed the Capitol. Do the people who broke democracy’s windows—the ones who wore hate symbols and carried Confederate flags—consider themselves patriots? Is that what they believe patriotism to be? Although these vigilantes invaded a government building, they were still defending themselves. Clinging to the myth that America somehow belongs to them (and only them), they actively rejected America’s long-overdue cultural reawakening. In self-defense, the rioters refused to acknowledge democracy as anything other than a menace.

Those infamous Capitol raiders do not embody the values of equality. Looking to the future, my question is this: why does love have to be defensive? In historian James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son (1955), Baldwin says that “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” Despite strong undertones of American Exceptionalism, Baldwin has a point—loving (or simply respecting) one’s homeland doesn’t have to be a complete defense of its faults. Rather, Americans have every right (and duty, I believe) to criticize and condemn this country’s inequalities.

Every fourth of July, star-spangled flags will still wave roundly in the breeze. Across the country, people will still parade and light firecrackers and watch them explode. No firework, however, can dim discrimination; America was built with it, on it, and because of it. Inequality is—and always has been—systemic. Defensive patriotism has tried its hardest to hide the nation’s flaws but, to address them, Americans must be on the offense against the nation’s shortcomings. So, the next time a firework streaks into the sky, look at it. That firework isn’t only a firework; its blast is a wake-up call.