Someone growing up black and Jewish in America is unlikely to be enchanted with the country. It is basic Social Identity Theory. Whites and Chinese growing up in Ghana are probably not wrapped up in Ghana. It is normal and natural for minorities to be unhappy with the majority culture and that has nothing to do with the majority culture being bad.
The same type of disaffected article could be written by an Arab growing up in the Jewish state or a non-Japanese person growing up in Japan or a Seventh-Day Adventist growing up in Australia.
Growing up, I was taught not to pledge allegiance to America, a country built on a promise of racial equality that’s crumbled in front of our eyes.
Some “real Americans” have been in a patriotic tizzy over Colin Kaepernick’s recent protest of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” during which the NFL quarterback sat, and then took a knee (in deference to the sacrifices of veterans), in order to demonstrate his discontent over the treatment of African Americans in general, and disproportionate police brutality in particular. Kaepernick’s continuous protest has inspired others, whether they share the field with him or not, to do the same as the 49ers QB.
(Just to show some numbers, black males make up 6 percent of the American population, but an astounding 40 percent of unarmed victims killed by police. A very odd statistic given that 71 percent of police deaths this year alone, were committed by white males).
Kaepernick’s actions have brought to the surface many unsettling truths about our country, from our national anthem actually being hella racist, to the hypocrisy of Americans, many of them white, who decry the demonstrative tactics of Black Lives Matter in favor of quiet, more peaceful protests—yet also decry said quiet peaceful shows of protest (see: Kaepernick) without delving, with equal intensity, into the reasoning behind such actions. The ironic icing on a this very sad cake is the Santa Clara Police Union’s recent threat not to provide security for future 49ers games, which only underscores Kaepernick’s point.
Kaepernick’s decision has reminded me of my own relationship to this country, as both an African American and a Jew. It reminds me in particular of my first days in public school. As the firstborn son of two New York school teachers, I was home schooled until I was seven years old. See, yeshiva wasn’t (and sometimes still isn’t) a terribly welcoming place, racially speaking, in the ’80s, nor was the public education system particularly stellar. As a result, I wasn’t unleashed upon the formal educational houses of the world until I had more than a fair grasp of both secular knowledge and Jewish identity.
Funny thing my parents neglected to inform me about on my first day of school, and every day thereafter: Hearing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” blared over the loudspeakers, during which you were expected to stand and sing, with hand over heart. Of course, my parents—who came of age during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War—weren’t particularly nationalistic, so the oversight is thoroughly understandable in retrospect.
