“If this country disgusts you so much, leave.”
Tomi Lahren, online political commentator, has taken any form of protest to mean disdain for America as a whole.
Political and civil protests have been shaking up the American political climate more frequently in recent times. Police brutality, racism, and inequality have spurred national movements and coalitions to form in order to address and protest these issues and others. Some people opposed to these demonstrations have called into question the protesters’ “patriotism” and their loyalty to their nation.
Recently, a major public controversy has been Colin Kaepernick’s demonstrations against standing for the national anthem in response to institutional racism in America In response to Colin Kaepernick’s protesting, Lahren challenged his intent and his stance, and basically his right to protest overall: Lahren reprimanded Kaepernick’s acts of protest, and claimed that he is showing lack of respect for the country by expressing himself in this way.
Yet don’t the freedoms of this country allow for freedom of opinion? Does patriotism mean blind acceptance of your country and all of its shortcomings without question, or does the American citizen have a right to try to fix the nation?
Millennials, who are known to prioritize social justice, have had mixed responses to this particular controversy and the concept of patriotism as a whole.
Growing up in “white suburbia” with a mom who “is not white looking” really affected how Rachel Langer views immigration. She remembers a specific time in her childhood when there was a crew of Latino men working fixing a roof of a nearby house. Langer’s mom asked her to bring water to them on a hot day – she was too “scared.” Her mother, upset, made her come along while she gave the men water, later saying, “There is no excuse not to be kind. Imagine what these men go through.” Langer never forgot that afternoon, saying it taught her compassion and helped fuel a drive to fight for immigration rights.
Langer, a 22-year-old senior at NYU from Minnesota studying Social Work and Public Health, advocates and protests for immigration rights. She’s participated in physical marches and protests and has also worked with immigration offices in Washington, D.C. to help immigrants. Langer believes that being American entitles one to try and mold the country into what you want and need.
“I don’t think I should stop fighting for what I think is important just for the sake of maintaining an illusion of perfect patriotism.” She says the concept of patriotism calls for allegiance to your country that involves trying to continuously improve it. “I feel like I can’t call myself a patriot if I’m not actively trying to make my country better.”
Langer, a white woman, disapproves of how “white people always use patriotism to shut down any movements or hear anyone out,” a common complaint in racially charged conflicts and an almost direct definition of Tomi Lahren’s reaction to Kaepernick. “Protests threaten what some see as pride for their nation,” continues Langer, and so are shut down or discredited as soon as possible. She adds that her upbringing and her mom’s inclination to be compassionate and teach sympathy has framed most of her political views, from immigration to racial discrimination and women’s rights.
But disregarding valid complaints about the current social and political state in the U.S. for the sake of patriotism is counterproductive and unhealthy for the nation. A large proportion of the population cannot be ignored or undermined when they choose to speak up about the inequality and hardships they experience on an institutional level simply because it threatens the comfort of those Americans who don’t have the same experiences.
For many, protests such as Kaepernick’s are inherently insulting. Those people take the symbol of the flag or the national anthem represent America and the sacrifices of the American people. And by “disrespecting” those symbols by not standing up, they believe he is forfeiting his patriotism and replacing it with disgust for the nation.
Joseph Dreser, a 25-year-old accountant from Florida, is one of those people. Dreser grew up with very conservative, all-American parents in one of the more rural parts of South Florida, Southwest Ranches. He always adhered to his parents’ political views growing up, but, unlike many millennials, his beliefs remained mostly the same even after he grew older and more informed on his own. He has always believed that symbols of Americanism should be protected at all costs. Protests like Kaepernick’s and others (i.e. Black Lives Matter) “leave a sour taste in [his] mouth.” He disagrees with such public protesting and finds no value in the act, claiming that all these demonstrations do is bring attention to the people but do not actually result in anything concrete. Furthermore, he not only says that the protests don’t yield intended results but that they also end up creating public contempt that harms the nation more than it helps whatever cause it is they fight for.
Earlier this week, Lee Francis, a high school history teacher in North Carolina, was suspended for desecrating a flag in order to teach free speech. The teacher attempted to cut and burn the flag and then proceeded to step on it as a demonstration of free speech. He was making the point that freedom of speech given in the United States constitution allows for all Americans to address the country, the flag, and anything else they want in any way they choose to do so.
“I thought it was unnecessary,” said Dreser. He believes this demonstration was “definitely unpatriotic” and finds it deplorable that a teacher would use his position of influence to show something so negative to young, impressionable minds. “He’s teaching them to be disrespectful to the country that gives them so much.
Langer, on the other hand, isn’t so harsh in judgment. “It’s definitely not the way I would have chosen to teach students about free speech, but I can see where he’s coming from. I don’t think his intent is to be anti-America or disrespectful.”
At the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 24th, President Obama delivered a speech touching on the importance of the coexistence of patriotism and protest. “This is the place to understand how protest and love of country don’t merely coexist but inform each other,” said President Obama. “It is…in the celebration of the entire American experience, where real patriotism lies,” he continued.
The president’s remarks and the concept of protest and patriotism not being at odds with each other and not being mutually exclusive could be revolutionary if it were widely accepted by the American population.
“What the President said really expressed what I’ve always believed – patriotism isn’t perfect and it isn’t concrete. I don’t think you can call yourself a patriot if you ignore the country’s faults just to not question it and ‘be a patriot’” said Langer, adding that she “simply doesn’t understand why the gut-reaction to protesting something in the US is to question the person’s allegiance to their country in general.
Dreser agreed that protest and patriotism could coexist – but only if the protest doesn’t, in his opinion, “inherently disrespect the country itself,” (referencing Kaepernick.) “You cant love your country completely but still claim that’s is so corrupt – you clearly don’t love it that much.”
If protesting was inherently accepted and seen as a means to advance society and benefit the individuals within a nation, rather than a form of disrespect or ungratefulness for the freedoms of the United States, inequality, violence and other prevalent issues in today’s societies could have foreseeable solutions or compromises that would prevent innocent people from suffering unnecessarily and further actual equality in the nation.
In this day and age when people are kicked out of presidential rallies for protesting, the concept of coexistence between patriotism and protest seems almost unattainable. But if this were to occur and the population became widely accepting of social protests, it would bring forth an era of social change that the United States drastically needs.