In America, in 2018, the word “patriotism” has taken on a particular meaning. “Patriotic” equals militaristic, patriarchal, obedient, maybe xenophobic; it evokes guns, red meat, the NFL, and the Republican National Convention. No matter how hard Democrats and liberals try to reclaim the word—to make the point that you can be “patriotic” while also believing that there are problems with the country—they haven’t been able to do it.
American culture is in a moment of reckoning. With the Women’s March, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter, there has been a demand for greater accountability among the powerful, and an insistence that we pay close attention to privilege and its blindspots. This gut-check has extended beyond the realm of civil rights to encompass repairing the historical record. This past March, The New York Times began “Overlooked,” an effort to rectify an imbalance in its own obituary coverage since 1851. “Who gets remembered—and how—inherently involves judgment,” noted Amisha Padnani and Jessica Bennett in their introduction to the project. It all comes down to the chroniclers, the gatekeepers.
On the weekend of August 12, 2017, Charlottesville, Virginia, became a metonym, thus joining that select fraternity of cities whose meaning is tied to singular events.
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