Targeting ‘White Privilege’ Training as ‘Anti-American’ Underscores America’s Weakness
And it came from the president of the country
Understanding history is liberating. It creates clarity around our current ecosystem and society. It prevents individual defensiveness and creates empathy for fellow humans. It is how to make needed, sustainable change.
And Americans are incredibly bad at it.
The most recent example of Americans’ unwillingness to confront our country’s history comes straight from the top — the president of the United States. President Trump directed the Office of Management and Budget to crack down on federal agencies’ anti-racism training sessions, calling them “divisive, anti-American propaganda.”
I link this to the ideology of blind patriotism — that is, cherry-picking the best parts of our history and staunchly denying or having zero tolerance for any criticism. The idea is that anyone who says anything negative about this country is automatically considered “unpatriotic.”
In reality, there is nothing more unpatriotic than not making an effort to fully understand your country; both the good and the bad. It creates clarity around the good things to be proud of and fight for, as well as around the bad things to improve and make right.
