John McCain may
put his country first, but has America earned that
honor?
Maybe if I
wasn’t keenly aware how black people came to be in
the United States to begin with. Perhaps if this
country’s wealth hadn’t come on the
backs, labor, and lives of people who look like me. Maybe,
just maybe, if all men and women in this country were
treated equally and given the same “opportunity
to reach their God-given potential,” I’d share
Sen. John McCain’s patriotism and the idea of
“country first.”
But as a
descendant of African slaves who were brought to this
country against their will and forced to work for
people who looked a lot like Cindy and John McCain, I
will never claim America as my country -- let alone
put it first.
“Country
first” empowered colonists to cross the Atlantic for
human cargo, who would be used to build the wealth
America so often boasts about -- wealth cultivated in
tobacco and cotton fields by the hands of slaves and
their descendants. “Country first” forced
those same slaves and descendants to adopt a language
and a religion that to this day has us praying to a
white man with blue eyes for our liberation. “Country
first” justified the torture, rape, and death of
countless black people.
McCain likes to
tout his experience as a prisoner of war. I say,
Whoop-de-do. Blacks have been prisoners of a war since the
first ship arrived in this country. At least McCain
was released at some point; my people are still
waiting.
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