Michelle Obama may say she's proud to be an American. I sure as hell can't. She has been through the hell of Driving While Black, Walking While Black, Shopping While Black, Sleeping While Black, Living While Black.
Michelle Obama had every right to say back in February, 2008, "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is making a comeback … not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change." And she got blow-back for that honest comment. Oh did she get blow-back. Her opponent's white wife wanted everyone to know that "I have and always will be proud of my country." I wonder how proud Cindy McCain is of that comment now.
Was Mrs. McCain trying to tell the world that our history of slavery doesn't matter? For any thoughtful American, that's all Michelle's comment was referring to. The audacity! While Living While Black, Michelle was elated that a substantial portion of her nation's people were supporting a black man for President.
I don't think Michelle Obama was guilty of saying it like it is. I think she might have been guilty of optimism.
But Michelle Obama is nothing if she is not honest. Only Michelle Obama can cry out to Blacks and People of Color who didn't vote...."You know, the day I left the White House, it was painful to sit on that stage, and then a lot of our folks didn’t vote — it was almost a slap in the face." It's true, Michelle and Barack did not deserve that slap in the face. I can't say the same for all their white friends. Doesn't mean that whites don't work their asses off to create good government. Doesn't mean they can't be frustrated when they lose. It does mean, however, in today's world, that a white person has no leg to stand on when he turns to a black man and says you screwed up. The screw up of not voting pales in comparison to the screw up of slavery and jim crow and red lining and lousy schools and lousy job opportunities. The list is so long. The list is so embarrassing long.
Any white person today who calls out I'm proud to be an American has to be incredibly insensitive and ignorant of how people of color have been and are treated in this country, or just plain happy to be in power.
Don't get me wrong. I think there's a lot to be proud of in this nation, first and foremost the freedom of the press. Sometimes that single institution, the free press, has almost single-handedly addressed the massive wrongs by the Congress, the Executive branch, and the Judiciary, all three of whom have worked tirelessly over the years to subjugate people of color. For centuries Congress passed laws that subjugated non-Whites, and the Executive branch happily enforced those laws, and the Supreme Court upheld those laws. Only free speech and a free press allowed solitary voices to rail against these abuses.
We can also be proud that Apple Computer invented the iphone. As powerful as speech is, people readily ignore it. The truth of video is harder to deny.
You will never hear me saying I'm proud to be an American. America has too much history that should sadden, if not shame, an empathetic, if not god-fearing, human being.
You will, however, hear me say I'm grateful to be an American, grateful to live in a nation supported by millions of people of color who, despite their history of suffering, strive to make their communities and their nation rich and vital.
And you will hear me say with vigor that I am proud to live in a society that values and nurtures free speech and a free press. That freedom above all separates us from a host of nations that suppress their people because the powerful know that their power does not emanate from the people, but rather from a gun.
Maybe a hundred years from now a great or great great grandchild of mine will comfortably say, "I'm proud to be an American." Today we have a long, difficult road to travel, if we as a people are to right the injustices and inequities that still exist in our culture. That, however, is a road and a task I can say I am proud to be a part of.
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