Why Are So Many Young People Embarrassed to be American?
If you thought America invented slavery, you might be embarrassed too.
Many years ago, while working for ABC Network News, I covered a naturalization ceremony in New York. I witnessed beaming, weeping faces become Americans. It’s a scene all Americans should see.
We all know that countless people from around the world yearn to come to America. We Americans often regard that fact as a cliche. But it’s not a cliche when you see it in person. The choice the people at the naturalization ceremony made cuts through so much of the political debate about the U.S. When all is said and done, where would you want to live?
Those brand-new Americans made their choice. So many other Americans, myself included, never had to make that choice. But if given the choice, would we trade places with would-be Americans from faraway countries?
Today, many Americans don’t share the passion for America I witnessed that day in New York. Not only are they not proud to be Americans, they’re embarrassed. That feeling is especially prevalent among younger Americans.
Consider a recent survey conducted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School.
Survey administrators asked Americans under 30 what they thought about their country. The results were especially revealing for young people on the left. Just 24% of young Democrats said they were proud to be American, and 54% said they were embarrassed.
The sentiment isn’t limited to lefties. Among young independents, 29% felt embarrassed to be American. Another 34% said they were neither proud nor embarrassed.
The pollsters didn’t ask why they were embarrassed to be Americans, but chances are good that racism plays a key role. From kindergarten through college, and on television, in movies, and in the media and social media, young Americans have been taught that America is fundamentally, systemically, and uniquely racist. It’s one of the monoculture’s sacred beliefs.
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Of course, American history includes plenty of dark chapters and of course young Americans should grapple with them. They should learn the bad, but they should also learn the good. And when older adults tell them only half the story, young Americans jump to some bizarre conclusions. The conclusions may be untethered from reality, but they flow naturally from the lies and half truths they’ve been taught.
Consider slavery. If you believed America invented slavery, you might also be embarrassed to be an American.
Think no functional American adult actually believes that?
Think everyone pretty much understands that slavery predates the Europeans’ arrival in America by thousands of years and has been practiced by people of nearly every hue?
If that’s what you think, you haven’t been on campus lately.
Check out what one English professor discovered: