[Up here in New England, the third Monday in April is a holiday, Patriots’ Day. But as I argue in my most recent book, patriotism is a very complex concept, and so this week I’ll highlight a handful of examples of the worst of what it has meant for how we remember our histories. Leading up to a weekend post on the state of mythic patriotism in 2024!]
On two
ways that a project dedicated to “patriotic education” embodies the worst of mythic
patriotism.
In a
brief post as part of last year’s July 4th series, I highlighted
the Trump administration’s now-defunct but still influential 1776 Project, and
the ways that its concept of “patriotic education” have informed ongoing attacks
on public education, educators and librarians, the discipline of history,
and more. I’d ask you to check out that quick post if you would, and then come
on back here for a couple additional connections of the 1776 Project to my
own concept of mythic patriotism.
Welcome
back! As I define it, mythic patriotism has two main layers, both of which we
can see quite clearly in the 1776 Project. The more overt is a vision of
American history and identity which relies on mythic narratives, ones that are
at the very least centered on white communities and are all too often
explicitly white supremacist. The 1776
Commission Report develops particularly mythic such visions of history and
identity when it comes to the American Revolution and founding, and most
especially the Framers—making the case, for example, that while many of them
owned enslaved people they opposed and sought to end the system of slavery. Besides
being inaccurate to the
flawed realities of this group of men, this historical narrative likewise
and even more frustratingly makes it nearly impossible to focus on a far more genuinely
revolutionary community of American founders: the enslaved men and women who
sought to use the era’s ideals to argue
for their own freedom and equality. Idolizing a simplistic vision of the
Framers in a way that overtly makes it more difficult to remember the presence
and contributions of their inspiring African American peers exemplifies a
white-centered, if not blatantly white supremacist, mythic patriotism.
Mythic patriotism
doesn’t just rely on such visions of the past and nation, however—it also
defines any Americans who critique and challenge those visions as unpatriotic
and even un-American. The 1776 Commission Report does that most explicitly in
its portrayal of “Universities in the United States” as “hotbeds of
anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship that combine to generate in students
and in the broader culture at the very least disdain and at worst outright
hatred for this country.” The authors add that “Colleges peddle resentment and
contempt for American principles and history alike, in the process weakening
attachment to our shared heritage.” To tie together this post’s two points, I would
highlight the word “our” in that final phrase, which to my mind subtly but
unquestionably refers to a white-centered vision of American history, heritage,
and identity. Besides being, once again, inaccurate to the realities of our foundational
and diverse community, that vision is also entirely wrong when it comes to the
potential effects, for students and for all Americans, of better remembering Revolutionary
stories and histories far beyond those of the Framers. Eliding those histories
in favor of simplistic myths about the Founding, and describing any scholars or
educators who challenge those myths as “anti-American,” is the real peddling of
resentment and contempt.
Next
patriotism post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think?
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