America’s 250th birthday is sure to be an occasion for competitive displays of patriotism emanating from every corner of the country. But while many Americans find that patriotism comes effortlessly, others struggle with it mightily. Every July 4, Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” circulates on what people used to call “Black Twitter.” At the time, Douglass’s speech was a much-needed call to action and a stinging rebuke of America’s hypocrisy in tolerating slavery while claiming to be a nation devoted to liberty. Now slavery is long gone, but the speech remains as a symbol of the fact that for many African Americans, the historical fact of slavery makes patriotism complicated. Can we celebrate the birth of American liberty when we were not included in it?
Back in 2019, The New York Times released the The 1619 Project, by Nikole Hannah-Jones. It is remembered by its admirers as an ambitious and necessary attempt to retell the American story with white supremacy and slavery at its center. It is remembered by its critics as an exercise in ahistorical nonsense—in particular for the falsehood, put forth in Hannah-Jones’ lead essay, that the American Revolution was fought in order to preserve slavery.
What is less remembered is that the thesis of that essay was a progressive case for American patriotism—albeit a bizarre and twisted one. Hannah-Jones argued that African Americans, more than any other group of Americans, can claim ownership of this country’s great ideals. “Our founding fathers may not have actually believed in the ideals they espoused,” she wrote, “but black people did.” In fighting for our freedom and equality, she argued, we have made the American ideals of freedom and equality true for everyone.
Her backdoor case for patriotism, in other words, was that the Founding Fathers were ideological frauds whose poor handiwork in creating America 1.0 was luckily bailed out by African Americans—who built the America 2.0 that we all enjoy today. Nor was Hannah-Jones eager to share credit for this accomplishment with any other group of people. In her words, African Americans “fought back alone” against the forces of white supremacy that plagued the country prior to the civil rights movement. Thus, black people should be the most patriotic flag-wavers of all.
