I Hope You’re Proud Of Yourself

By Kleinheider Posted on December 2, 2008 at 7:25 am

Derek Clark discusses the irrationality of patriotism:

Being “proud to be an American” is an interesting concept. Generally you are proud of something that you have done well. An impressive accomplishment can make a person proud. Simply being proud because you were born in a certain place could be considered a little silly. You had no control over it at all.

There are other reasons that are perfectly acceptable to not be patriotic. To be perfectly frank, America has not been a good place to live for many people. Being a minority in America has meant bad things for many many people. Slavery existed in for almost 90 years for blacks. The next 100 years were not much better. There were lynchings, segregation, and a lot of discrimination for a long time. Some still exists today. If you were an African American living in these eras, there was no reason to be patriotic or proud to be an American. These things make me ashamed sometimes.

While I am still thankful for America and all it has given me, I don’t think any less of you if you aren’t. It is perfectly reasonable in many cases, and in some cases it makes very little sense to be proud to be an American.

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