By now I've traveled through the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee. I have driven the state highways, byways, and down past small town roads, passing homes large and small. Grand country manors and trailer homes straight out of an episode of Justified. Despite the size differences, there are striking similarities between them. The most obvious being the American flag. It is everywhere. Hanging outside homes, businesses, slapped on cars and license plates.
Pride in the grand ole' U.S. of A., is rampant. I should not be surprised. I am in the south after all, reliable Republican bastion and according to many Trump country. But you see the thing is that many of the people I drive pass are just not working class; they are lower working class. They have no privilege. Whatever "privilege" these people are supposed to have they did not get the memo and their banks did not get the deposit. Yet, they show pride in their country.
As I was meditating on this dichotomy unbeknownst to me national columnist for the New York Times, Mara Gay, was making news with the following words:
I saw, you know, dozens and dozens of pickup trucks with expletives against Joe Biden on the back of them, Trump flags, and in some cases, just dozens of American flags, which is also just disturbing, which essentially the message was clear, this is my country. This is not your country. I own this.
I heard about the controversy late and went on a small video rant about it on one of my rides, but I feel on this Fourth of July, a deeper more measured response is necessary. And as I sat down to write that response a new flag issue erupted at the Olympic trials. Female Hammer thrower (what is that anyway?) Gwen Berry turned her back on the American flag, while the national anthem played.
What is wrong with these people?
No, seriously what disconnect from reality is occurring to these two black women and people like them? Berry is quoted as saying, “the anthem and flag do not speak to her and never has." Okay, that is fine.
It is America. Protest is in our DNA. But why is Berry training hard to represent the country and flag she does not like, love, or respect? She made the Olympic team, that means her uniform will be the colors of the country. She will wear the red, white, and blue. If the colors and flag do not speak to her, then why is she even competing? Is there some underground hammer throwing league that pays Olympic throwers six-figure salaries? If she medals, is she going to be on a Wheaties box?
The answer to both questions is not likely, so if she hates the flag why in the hell does she want to represent it? I have always had the same question about soccer star Megan Rapinoe, but at least in her case she is in a high-profile sport that can provide large endorsements and has a professional league. It makes sense that she would dismiss America as horrible but play for it to make some bank.
With Mara Gay, consider the following. Gay is 31 years old, meaning she is a nineties baby. You know the decade where white people wanted to be like Mike. Gay attended a prestige state school at the University of Michigan. She has a high-profile job at the most well-known newspaper in the world. She is a regular contributor to MSNBC. As a result, Gay is making mid-six figures in income. If you factor in speaking engagements, she gets because of those positions her total income is even higher.
Where is her oppression?
Nothing Gay has or has done results from being Uber special. She is not some alien being, sent to earth and endowed with special powers that allow her to do things others cannot. She's got what she’s got because she lives in America. America allows her to do and get those things. If she was from say Somalia, the country of birth, for one of her favorite Congressional members, Ilhan Omar, she would have nothing.
As an American citizen she is living a life the most people—white or black—do not. Gay is living a life that slaves could not have conceived in their minds. Gay is living a life that millions died and marched for her to have. Mara Gay is living and walking around in a life of privilege.
Yet, Gay prances about with an air of grievance. I've listed what she has done, but here is what she has not done.
- She has never cowered in fear in her house at the sight of a burning cross in the front yard of her home.
2. At no point did Gay ever have to walk into a business from the back.
3. She has never been in a colored only bathroom, or even seen one.
4. Gay has never been disallowed entry into every university she applied for simply because she was black.
Gay is 31 years old, born in the 90s, nothing has ever happened to her. She has not endured a single iota of white supremacy or systemic racism. She is too young to have ever had any of that be a reality in her world.
Gay believes people showing their flags had an air bout them that said, "This is mine country. We own this." Okay, mind reading aside, my question is why doesn't Gay feel the same way? Everything she has is because of America. Why isn't she walking around saying it's her country? It is, after all.
And why does she think only MAGA’s openly claim the colors of Old Glory? Almost my entire family on my father's side served in the military. They are all black. Near as I can tell, they are all Democrats. I can assure you or Gay; they honor those colors. They love the flag, anthem, and the country.
If I could say anything to Gay, send her one message, it would be this. Thousands of black and whites died to give me freedom from slavery. Even more died defending this country from fascism and Nazism. Thousands of blacks marched, were beaten, and died fighting for my complete freedom. My father served this country. My cousin died defending this country.
You are damn right; I own this. It is MY country. Given to me and paid for in blood. This is mine, by birthright and through the spilt blood of millions. It is mine, and therefore I will love, honor, and respect the flag. I will wrap myself in it and feel the weight of those before me who fought and died for the ideals it represents.
And Mara, it is your flag as well for the same reasons. Your claim on the country and its flag is as strong as anyone else’s. Only an ill advised sense of inferiority complex would make you think otherwise.
Are you inferior, Mara? Do you think you are less than some beer guzzling red neck in a truck? Or some Merlot sipping blue blood? No?
Then stop acting like it.
