We don’t hate America. We built America. Brick by brick, cotton bale by cotton bale, invention by invention, we shaped this nation while it denied our humanity. Our ancestors sowed its fields, cleaned its houses, fought its wars, and fueled its economy. If we hated America, we would have left long ago—or let it collapse under the weight of its own hypocrisy. But love and hate are not opposites here. The opposite of hate is trust, and trust is something America has never truly earned from Black folks.
Every generation of Black people has been asked to prove our patriotism. We’ve marched, bled, and died for freedoms we were rarely allowed to enjoy. From Crispus Attucks to the Tuskegee Airmen, our loyalty has been tested, questioned, and betrayed. The nation that celebrates “liberty and justice for all” has always added an invisible asterisk next to “for all.”
So, no—we don’t hate America. But we’ve learned to be cautious with a country that too often confuses our survival with its generosity.
Consider the No Kings rallies last week. Millions—Black, brown, white, young, and old—marched to reject creeping authoritarianism. The name said it plainly: No Kings. No man above the law. Yet critics dismissed the protests as “un-American,” “radical,” even “Marxist.” The Speaker of the House called demonstrators a “hate-America mob.”
That’s rich. What could be more American than dissent? What could be more patriotic than demanding that power answer to the people?
When Black people raise our voices, our love for this nation is called hatred. When Colin Kaepernick knelt to protest police violence, they said he disrespected the flag. When Fannie Lou Hamer said she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” they called her divisive. When today’s marchers chant “No Kings,” they’re labeled enemies of democracy—when, in fact, they’re its last defenders.
Our mistrust of America isn’t born of cynicism; it’s born of experience. From redlining to racial profiling, from voter suppression to environmental racism, this nation has given us every reason to be wary. Trust is not a constitutional guarantee—it’s a social contract. And America has broken that contract repeatedly.
