July 30, 2021

Michael Harriot on not loving America

https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/1421095119244038145

Charlie Kirk calls Simone Biles a "selfish sociopath" and a "shame to the country"

"We are raising a generation of weak people like Simone Biles"
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) July 27, 2021

___Unlike the un-athletic, uneducated, 27-year-old Kirk, who has never contributed a single thing to the country he loves so much (unless you count the gift of Candace Owens), 24-year-old Biles managed to become the most decorated gymnast in World Championship history. Yet, somehow she is weaker than a grown man who calls himself “Charlie.”

How do I know he loves his country?

Besides the desire to hug the red, white and blue banner, or have unprotected sex with a star-spangled banner, the most obvious way to know if someone loves America is to see if the person has ever professed their love in words. And Kirk, like most flag-fucking America-lovers, said it.

See? I told you.

Of course, anyone who has ever been in a relationship with a fuckboy knows that saying the words “I love you” doesn’t always mean the person actually feels that way. However, there is a second way to display one’s love for America.

Hating Black people.

I’m not saying that everyone who loves America hates Black people. (I wasn’t being facetious. I really don’t know what loving a country means.) But history, news and personal interactions have taught me that most of the people who hate Black people also love America.

Jefferson Davis said “I love the Union and the Constitution” just before he turned traitor to start his own white supremacist nation. Loving America was an excuse for lynching Black people during Reconstruction and after World War I. It was Strom Thurmond’s patriotic duty to sic the FBI on Martin Luther King Jr. because King didn’t love America. The Panthers hated America so much they gave away free breakfast in their community. Black people’s lack of affection for this country inspired COINTELPRO. The last Olympic basketball team lost because LeBron James hates America, according to Jason Whitlock. So does Black Lives Matter. Colin Kaepernick, too. Still, some organizations are not afraid to explain what they stand for:

It stands for America first–first in thought, first in affections, and first in the galaxy of nations. The Stars and Stripes forever above all other and every other kind of government in the world.

That is from a mission statement from the Ku Klux Klan.

It’s clear that hating Black people is equivalent to loving America. You never heard Kirk singing Biles’ athletic praises with national pride before she bowed out of the Olympics. Jason Whitlock, who is a sportswriter and a patriot, somehow never finds anything positive to say about the best basketball player of his generation. Pro-America, free speech crusaders like Candace Owens never lauded Kaepernick for exercising his First Amendment rights. The only thing more consistent than their love of country is their remarkably dependable distaste for anything a Black person does.

I’m sure it’s a coincidence.

It’s also interesting to me that these people’s love for America is never questioned. They hate everyone’s free speech except when they disagree with it. They love democracy except when their party is suppressing votes or trying to overturn elections. They love the Constitution except for impeachment and separation of church and state. The hate violence in the American streets except for the right-wing domestic terrorist lynch mobs. They love the troops, except the ones who study Critical Race Theory. They love cops who keep their country safe...until it’s time to spray cops with bear repellent and beat them with flagpoles.

Maybe I just don’t know how to love America.


read more: https://www.theroot.com/i-do-not-love-america-1847389105