Sunil Adam
The Indian American
The unkindest cut of the presidential primary contests didn’t
come from the Clinton campaign against candidate Barack Obama. Or vice versa. It
certainly didn’t come from the hopeless underdogs in the Republican pack against
their high-riding Democratic counterparts. It didn’t even emanate from a large
section of the media that seems besotted by the charismatic freshman senator
from Illinois and congenitally biased against the junior senator from New York.
While one can make a case against MSNBC’s trio – Tim Russert, Chris Matthews and
Keith Olbermann – it would be a digression.
The unkindest cut came from conservative commentators and talk show hosts who
called into question the patriotism of Michelle Obama, the first black woman
poised to become the next First Lady of the United States. Several news cycles
in the talk radio circuit and the blogosphere were dominated by a discussion of
how unpatriotic she was when she said: “For the first time in my adult life, I
am really proud of my country.”
It is debatable if there is always a connection between pride in the country and
a sense of patriotism (does one need to be proud of one’s parents or children to
love them?). But it is worth examining if racial minorities in the United States
view patriotism differently from the white majority. Can there be different
forms of patriotism, or should everyone conform to the majority view of
patriotism – unqualified pride in one’s country (which, presumably, also
involves sporting lapel buttons, bumper stickers of the American flag and
placing your hand on your heart when the national anthem is played).
Historically, religious, racial and cultural minorities in all societies have
had to prove their patriotism, unlike the majority community or group whose
patriotism is taken for granted. Muslims and Christians in India, Hindus in
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia, the Chinese in Indonesia, Kurds in Turkey,
Turks in Germany, Jews all over Europe, etc., have always been subjected to
suspicion and the scrutiny of their patriotic leanings.
Are Chechens proud Russians, too? Are Corsicans and Algerians in France loyal to
the Fifth Republic? Are French Canadians Canadian enough? What about the
loyalties of Arabs in Israel? And let’s not even talk of the Irish in Britain.
The American experience has been somewhat different. Despite being a
multiracial, multiethnic and multicultural nation, America, until the 1960s,
remained insulated from “minority” issues because of the peculiar nature of its
evolution as a nation-state – immigration and assimilation of European races, on
the one hand, and oppression and subjugation of non-European races, on the
other.
While assimilation ensured the patriotism of the European stock, slavery,
segregation and other legal discriminations against non-Europeans, including
blacks, Native Americans and Chinese, made their patriotism, or the lack of it,
almost inconsequential. It is the inconsequential nature of the minorities that
enabled the United States to send black troops to fight in World War II and not
think twice about interning Japanese Americans during the war period – all in
the name of defending liberty.
The contradictions in American patriotism came to the fore during and after the
tumultuous civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, as well as with the
opening up of immigration from Afro-Asian countries and a growing intellectual
support for multiculturalism as against assimilation. The contradictions
stemming from these developments have not been satisfactorily resolved to this
day.
Yes, there was a brief period after the wanton attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when
Americans of all hues and cultures emotionally comforted each other – perhaps
the most poignant expression of patriotism there can be. But after the shock had
worn off, whites and nonwhites looked at 9/11 very differently.
Believing that America was targeted because of its freedom and democracy, whites
overwhelmingly supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and saw them as a part
of the struggle against terrorism. Even those who didn’t agree with the
rationale for the Iraq War supported it as a patriotic duty.
Whereas, a 2005 Pew Research Center poll found blacks nearly twice as likely as
whites to have strong reservations about the Iraq War. That’s not only because
they didn’t believe the linkage between 9/11 and Iraq, but also because they
viewed 9/11 very differently. Most blacks, though they abhor terrorism,
sympathize with the real or perceived grievances of Muslim countries against a
white America manipulating their lives and destinies.
In 2002, Walter Mosley, a black writer and Bill Clinton’s favorite novelist, was
quoted in the British Guardian newspaper as saying he hasn’t met one black who
was surprised by the 9/11 attacks. “Like everyone else, they were shocked by the
magnitude of it, and appalled by the deaths, but they weren’t surprised by the
hate and anger that produced it. Black Americans are very aware of the attitude
of America towards people who are different, people whose beliefs are different,
people of a different color. We live with that attitude every single day. We
know how hated America is.”
In a psychological context, blacks always identified the Afro-Asian fight
against a world order dictated by the European stock with their own struggle
against discrimination and prejudice. But the poetic irony is that the blacks’
fight for equality and justice at home never affected their patriotism or their
American identity. The evidence lies in the fact that they never embraced the
separatist Black Nationalism advocated by a number of fringe groups, including
the Nation of Islam movement led by the controversial Louis Farrakhan.
As standup comedian Chris Rock explains in his own inimitable style, this is
still the greatest country in the world – even for blacks. “America,” he says,
“is like your uncle who put you through college, but molested you.”
This contradiction has been a constant in the black American experience. It is
entirely plausible therefore that Michelle Obama remains patriotic even if she
has not always been proud of her country because of the continued need to
struggle for racial equality, even in this day and age. Her newfound pride in
her country is entirely justifiable considering that the Democratic primaries
have shown that the gap between American promise and reality is closing.
The heartening response of white America to Barack Obama’s candidacy has made
the entire black community proud of their country, arguably, for the first time
in its 400-year history. As Obama makes his inspirational journey toward 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., with the support of what he calls the New American Majority,
American patriotism may be finally resonating “We the people” in a way that the
American Founding Fathers never imagined.
Sunil Adam is the editor of The Indian American, a bimonthly magazine. This
column appears in the March-April issue of the magazine. He can be reached at
sunil@theindianamerican.com
