In the latest five-minute video for PragerU, sports journalist Jason Whitlock talked about the American promise of freedom, and why — contrary to what some people have started to think — America does not promise anyone love.
Whitlock notes that America’s founding documents are rife with talk about freedoms. “You don’t want to live in a country where all your needs are taken care of by the government. That’s not how you become great. That’s how you become dependent, vulnerable, and truly oppressed,” says Whitlock.
But lately, Whitlock argues, many people have been acting as though America promises not freedom, but love.
Last summer, the National Basketball Association NBA released a pre-approved list of slogans players could wear on their jerseys while on the court. The list included phrases common in activism, such as “I Can’t Breathe” and “Say Her Name” and “Ally,” but also included the words, “Love us.”
Whitlock says that emblazoning a slogan on the back of a jersey, calling for others to love you, isn’t part of the American promise. And those who think it is are looking for love in all the wrong places.
“You can’t demand love from people,” says Whitlock. “Love is freely given or not given at all. Telling people not to call you this name or that name; or not to act this way or that way — consciously or unconsciously — because it offends you will not bring you love.”
Rather, love comes in the form of a “mother’s smile,” a kid’s joy when his dad comes home from work, and “what God offers you every moment” of the day. “To the government you’re just a social security number,” he says.
Whitlock, who describes himself as “proud to be a black man in America,” argues that the pursuit of freedom — and not the pursuit of love — has led to the greatest advancements of equality in the United States.
“Blacks have made enormous contributions to this country. But let me tell you what our single greatest contribution has been. We have been this nation’s moral conscience,” he says. “Blacks have forced America to live up to its best ideals. Our righteous pursuit of freedom — pursuit of freedom, not love — compelled this nation to seek and find its better self.”
“It’s been a long, hard road. But we’re close to Dr. King’s promised land. We have reached the mountaintop in politics, in medicine, in space, in literature, in sports, in music, in business. No other majority white country has ever been led by a black man or woman. Blacks can demand opportunity. That’s every American’s right. We can demand freedom. That’s every American’s right. But we can’t demand love,” says Whitlock.
But asking for love instead will only lead us to the wrong place. “Away from God where we have, as a community, always found strength and solace, and toward government, which offers us nothing but empty promises.”
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