Am I wrong for feeling cringe and ickiness when looking at my country flag?

No. I saw a lady driving with two USA flags on the sides of her car yesterday. I assume this is her alternative to having a Trump sticker, since that shit would likely engender a negative response in the Bay Area (specifically Oakland / Berkeley). She just looked dumb as fuck. I was embarrassed for her.
Don't be ashamed to be ashamed of your country. If you're also a USA citizen, we have a lot to be ashamed about. But also don't give up. Fight back. Don't let them slow-roll to victory by causing us to go numb.

Not from the US but when I see my country's flag I don't really feel anything. In theory I've got two flags, both the Scottish one and the Union Jack but they both elicit the same lack of reaction. Countries are just social and geographical facts. Getting angry or elated at the sight of a flag is a bit like having an emotional reaction to the moon; I suppose it's possible in some circumstances but most of the time it's just there and you shrug.
- Ok but the cool thing about the white saltire on blue background is you get your flag in the sky whenever two planes leave a trail at the right angle.

I kinda know what you mean... I used to not think anything weird about seeing an American flag, sometimes it even made me feel patriotic. Now when I see a car with an American flag sticker I assume the person driving probably has a loaded gun and is desperate to get into an argument about something
- Exactly my point. It tends to be the case too.

Aw, you're turning English.
The St George Cross flag basically gets trotted out for football and racism. That's it.
If I see one on somebody's house and it's not Euros or World Cup season, then I automatically assume they're seething because they heard somebody have a phone conversation in a foreign language on the bus three weeks ago and that they should bring back smoking in pubs.

The greatest lie the Right ever told that the Left bought hook line and sinker was that they were the ones who represented America.
The thing is, while the US has it's horrible history and present, the people who fought for the ideals we're supposed to have are also just as much American as any conservative asshole. MLK Jr was American. Frederick Douglass was American. John Brown was American. Mister Rogers was American. Abolitionists. Suffragists. Union fighters. People fighting for fixing the problems, righting the wrongs, holding our country accountable for it's own ideals, are just as much a part of that flag.
The assholes laid claim to that flag and the people who are aware of the problems, who have legitimate concerns with the bullshit this country has done and continues to do, accidentally let them.
- So then the question is, what should the flag represent, the people or the ideals? If it's the ideals, then some real shitheads are trying to steal your flag.
- I agree with this with every piece of my heart. I'd like more than anything for American non-maga's to take back the American flag (and the gadsden for that matter). Let them have their maga and thin blue line, but ceding the American flag to them is essentially admitting that you don't want to be a part of this country, which only makes maga's feel more comfortable about labeling you as an "other". I know, I grew up in a conservative family, and still live in a conservative state. It's a self-exacerbating problem.
  I can sympathize with those that really are done with the country, but I'm not ready to give up yet. We can flip the script. Pride marches should be flooded with American flags. Civil rights too. Force conservatives to come to terms with the fact that they're no more American than the trans-commie over there waving the big-ass American flag. If we're so lucky to make it through this and come out the other side a better country, I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to changing the flag. But right now I believe it makes strategic sense to claim the 50-stars. Fly your other flags with it if you don't want to be confused for a conservative, then you're essentially projecting "hey, I'm American too, dumbass!".
  TL;DR: the American left needs stop being so self-concious about what waving an American flag says about them and realize that a.) non-maga's waving the American flag can be a powerful propaganda tool, and b.) they can take it back.
  🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 NAZI AMERICANS FUCK OFF 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
  
  🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 SHOOT ALL NAZIS ON SIGHT! USA! USA! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

I haven't been proud to be an American in a long time. We were looking for a house, now we're debating if leaving is safer.
This country is doomed, and everyone who voted Trump deserves to burn in the fires they helped create. Fuck em, I have literally no sympathy left.

I have always had that feeling living in a fascist third world country (Turkey) welcome to the club

Don't forget who took that from you.
- It was never a flag with lots of good behind it, it's one of the least deserving of patriotism flags. And the fact that it is so heavily used, just like patriotism, lying about history in schools, the military shit is all extremely fucked up. It's brainwashing on a disgusting level.

Do USian school children still talk to that bit of fabric every morning - or is that a myth? From an outsider’s perspective I always put the US just below, uh, post-Weimar republic Germany in the excessive flag club chart placings. Always seemed excessively jingoistic.
Best of luck with your country…
- I'll tell this story as often as it's relevant - I was made to recite the pledge of alliegance in school at 5 years old. I wasn't a citizen, I should have had no reason to swear fealty, and our family was denied green cards, so the allegiance was not reciprocated.
  Kind of dodged a bullet if I'm honest, but still, I remember it verbatim to this day, because I was indoctrinated when I was too small and naive to know any better. Not reciting it was not an option I was presented with. I don't think anybody in charge would've thought twice about it either.
  
  Damn, that’s a rough and crazy story but, like you say, looking at it now I agree you probably did dodge a bullet. At least you get to see the empire fall from the outside.
- Yes it still goes on. I live in a very liberal city with a ton of diversity bordering Chicago and our schools still do it here. However, they don’t care if you participate or not - that is your personal choice.
  I have been substitute teaching and I’ve noticed that not many kids recite it. They just listen to it being recited over the morning announcements.
  
  I like the way your school works where you can chant along if you want - I remember having to lip-sync the “Lord’s prayer” (daily bread speech) as a kid so as not to get a whooping from a zealot in the staff room. Crazy times.
  Best of luck to you, your kids and your city - you’re literally educating the generation that might have to dig your whole country out from the nightmare it appears to be building. Look after yourselves…

- Came here to post this. Thank you for your service.
- Thanks for the laugh. It's basically all I can do at this point is laugh about how shitty it is.
- "To this extent? Yes."

I know exactly what you're talking about. I'm from Russia.

The country where I was born and raised is 900 years old. This implies a lit of history, both good and bad.
The country was literally started because our first king decided he wasn't going to allow his mother and her lover to steal his father's lands. After that, the Pope demanded our country to pay the church a huge sum in order to be recognized, the king said "we'll eventually come to that" and never payed. We were taken over by our neighbouring country at some point because of blood ties and after 75 years we just said "enough is enough, these guys are getting housted". We fought Napoleon. We had a bloody civil war. Somewhere inbetween all of this we decided "Let's build a lot of boats and see where we can go." because the price of spices was to damn high. And more recently we got out of bed for a morning, threw down a fascist dictatorship, and went back to our quiet life. Nobody cares or notices us but yet we have one of the most powerful passports in the world.
But why all of this boasting?
It's cool to have all this history and background. But I don't owe my country nothing. I owe who I am to my family and friends and I owe to the future generations to remember where we come from and teach them the same I learned by myself: we are our country. We decide what we stand for and we represent the values we want to spread.
The government of your land may be corrupt today but it does not have or needs to represent you. And by refusing that, you put up your own resistance. No matter how small, that is resistance. And if you feel your flag needs to be reclaimed, put it upside down.
Stay strong, OP.
- I'm guessing Portugal?
  
  Correct!
- Thanks for this! <3

Every time I see flags out in public, it just reminds me of authority.
I don't like authority, from schools administrators to employers, or even parents, fuck them all, wannabe fascists.
Flags, school logos, corporate logos, or the concept of the "family name" its all the same. (I'd change the family name if it doesn't cause so much paperwork trouble)
Maybe this flag as a replacement?
- Found the anarchist
  
  Are you on Lemmy? Yes? Then you're just shooting fish in a barrel on that one.
  None of us are using Lemmy because we agree with the status quo out there.

The American flag has become more a symbol of nationalism to me than a symbol of patriotism. It represents everything I hate about my country, and none of the things I love.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" - I think Samuel Johnson's original meaning, of complaining about "false" patriots, strongly applies to your distaste for the flag. The idiots we see proudly waving their country flags (in Brazil, that'd be the bozonaristas) are using them as a cover for their prejudices and stupidity. They wouldn't be able to name a single thing they like about the country they love.

I don’t think you’re wrong at all.
Personally, I don’t hate the flag because for me it represents ideals that should be for everyone and that I should be fighting oppression of those against the dream. I have a very Captain America-esque view.
What I cringe and have disgust with are the citizens that want to tear down these just ideals or misrepresent and distort what we should be.

I hate even dressing up on July 4th for fear of looking like a capitol raiding moron. It didn't use to be like this, and frankly, it's depressing as fuck. I used to be very proud of my nation, and the progress we'd made in my short lifespan. We legalized gay marriage, elected a black president, tried to get healthcare for all (didn't work and we all know why), but I genuinely felt optimistic about our nation and the future. 4 years of Trump did a number on my sense of patriotism, and were only 1 months in to Trump 2.0 and he's dealt a knockout blow to it. I genuinely cringe seeing any amount of national pride now.
- Back in the day when my grandfather had a shack in Canada for the summers he would wear a Canada flag hat from time to time. People complimented him on it. This was in the 80s when pride in your country wasn’t associated with “nationalism” and sort of racial pride. Now-a-days even a Canadian flag holds weirdo connotations not even getting into the American flag…
  
  Aw, I like the Canadian flag. I'm not Canadian, but I like Canada. Bunch of good people up there.
  What I'm trying to say is.....PLEASE LET ME IN!!! GET ME OUTTA THIS HELL HOLE AMERICA!!! I'm even in Cleveland! It wouldn't even be that far away! Just I'll borrow a jetski in the summer, and I'll be over in like....20 minutes. I don't know how long it takes to cross Lake Erie. I assume it's short.

I felt this way a few years ago when we had the idiot convoy ride across Canada. The flag became a symbol for racist, anti-vax, just general assholes.
I never was a huge fan of flying the flag anyway, because to me it represents colonialism, but I never used to mind it as much. Now when I see it out of place, I just assume bad, unless it's one of our more cheerful variations like the indigenous design or the heart one that was used to show support for medical workers.
I see other people getting down voted for similar sentiments, but visiting the US always made me feel uncomfortable to see ALL the flags. I honestly haven't been to another country that takes that much pride in their flag. Until the convoy, I don't think I even ever saw anyone flying Canadian flag in their yard except maybe for Canada Day.
Idk, what I'm saying is, I feel for you, I understand it's a symbol of your national identity, but also, maybe take more pride in what actual good Americans do rather than in just some made up symbolism of what they should be.

youre not alone. the american flag makes me sick. overt patriotism has been coopted by magats, and its hard to see it any other way.
if someone feels the need to wave the american flag, i feel the need to be suspicious of your lack of empathy and possible fascist undertones. sorry.
- Yeah but if I see an Australian or New Zealander fly their flag I'm like "they're probably chill". If I see someone waving a bit american flag I would think they were going to shoot me and call me the n word

You tell me, man. Over here in Brazil, seeing a national flag outside the context of "it's world cup match day" generally signals whoever is flying it is a fascist twat.
- Dang, that's interesting. Thank you for the context. (-an embarrassed american)
  
  Fun little anecdote -- One of my neighbours is one such twat. They used to fly a Brazilian flag from their window.
  Then Jan 8 2023 came and went, and the "patriots" failed to manifest a CIA-backed military coup in our country by camping outside army boot camps (because the CIA right now has other problems and doesn't care to fund right wing dictatorships in Latin America, and our military does not like to work and will never move their asses, for or against any cause, without a fat paycheck telling them to) -- And they became disillusioned.
  So they replaced the Brazilian flag, with the flag of SE Palmeiras, a soccer team. Which is hilarious because Palmeiras has history with the original fascists, like the Italian, Mussolini-before-he-was-hung ones.

Patriotism leads to nationalism, xenophobia, and racism. Not always, of course, but often enough to make it a horrible thing. Our communities are only as good as we make them, and any notion that presupposes greatness is antithetical to continued improvement.
- A German comedian put this quite well: Only in a patriotically heated hothouse can racism/nationalism thrive
  
  And a German philosopher said: "The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen."

No, you're right to feel that way. While most Americans aren't terrible people, enough of us are that we allowed fascism to take over and we will have to carry that shame with us for the rest of our lives. It Happened Here.
- No, you’re right to feel that way.
  Agree.
  While most Americans aren’t terrible people,
  Hard disagree.
  enough of us are that we allowed fascism to take over and we will have to carry that shame with us for the rest of our lives. It Happened Here.
  Well....yeah. That's a symptom of the problem which is why I had to hard disagree with you.

In elementary school, I was all about patriotism. The flag was cool. we (country) were the bad-ass owners of our own fate and we're cool. We are the melting pot, by the people for the people.
Up through Desert Shield, I was still like yay, America.
W lost his luster, I got old enough to feel the embarrassment of broccoli and NUCULER. I wasn't rah rah anymore, but those that are, live and let live right?
Dixie flag wavers were racists, that was easy, but the 1776 flag, will maybe they're historians.
I was mostly over our the right's shit by Clinton. But then Clinton had some of his own disturbing shit.
When Trump hit the first time, I saw, 30-40% of the population throwing flags up and starting fascist fights. Complete and Immediate disillusion.
At his point, someone flying the US flag is a BIG red flag. The Dixie flag is stupid racists, The 1776 flag is libertarians who fall into camps between uninformed and uninformed racists pop it up there with the don't tread on me bullshit.
At this point, if you're not retired military from a better time, there's very little you can do to show me you can fly an American flag and not be a horrible person.
- Another valid reason to fly one is self defense. If you are bold enough to exist on rural american roads while riding a bicycle, having an american flag visibly attached to your bike can do a lot to disarm the types of people who would otherwise run you off the road.

However you feel is not "wrong", and in this case pretty understandable.
Here in Australia I don't have a problem with the flag itself, but there seems to be a strong correlation with people putting flags on their cars and being racist assholes.
- I was gonna say the same thing. The members of my family that wave that fucking flag also have the most reprehensible boot-licking attitude.
  I hate the goddamn thing. Atrocities of every kind have been committed under it, we're just a little more sheltered from it, because its part in the global imperial project is smaller, and it gets less coverage than the US's blaring parade of shame.

Totally healthy! I started that when my friends died in Iraq or came back without limbs and sustaining life long trauma. But newbies always welcome 😁
- Is it sad that I know your rough age, just based on the fact that you went to THIS country which had an unwarrented war return kids with missing limbs, or they returned in a box......as opposed to if you had said that you went to THIS OTHER country which had an unwarrented war return kids with missing limbs, or they returned in a box.
  I know you're 35-45, and not 70-80. The description is the same, but the boomers had a different country. Vietnam.
  I just find it sad that the idea of our country sending an entire generation of kids off to die in a pointless war not only happened.....it's happened for multiple generations! The ONLY difference is that Iraq wasn't mandated with a draft.
  
  Lol pretty much. My HS US history teacher was a Vietnam vet. He kept a running total of Iraq civilian death and total death toll on the whiteboard. Told us stories from Vietnam of calling in bunk artillery coordinates cause he was tired of seeing dead civs, and how he wish he was a bomber crewmember cause then he wouldn't have seen it. He updated the Iraq numbers at the start of every class.
  Only teacher I've seen hit a kid. Kid was being a severe and petty little shit and directly insulted the trauma of servicemen. That teacher wouldn't have given a fuck if you shit talked the military or the wars but insulting the suffering of his comrades in that specific way sent him. I think everyone kind of just mutually decided it didn't happen.

As a German, I feel you.
- <3

Where I live it's hard to see someone flying an American flag and not immediately assume they're a bigot.
Magats did to the American flag what they think gay people did to the rainbow.
- yeah its like the flag itself. its design. its very nice and meaningful. The folks who go all boner on it makes it like eww. jeesh memorial is just around the corner. mini flags laying around as refuse along with flag plates and napkins. Doing things like that to the flag used to be considered disrespectful. Its like omg this guy burned the flag to symbolize our government no doing things in the way intended by the founders but lol mustard stains on old glory, fuck yeah!

this is what free speech is all about, you should never feel wrong for feeling gross about how your country is fucking up

Here's an alternative take to upset the boring consensus here.
Patriotic pride (not necessarily nationalism) is the inevitable product of social cohesion. A society which is cohesive is one where people look at strangers and see them as members of their tribe - essentially, as extended family. It's a society where citizens are therefore willing to pay high taxes to fund those strangers' welfare benefits, for example. No welfare state has ever arisen in a country without this essential quality. Almost by definition, social cohesion is closely correlated with patriotism. In the world's most redistributive countries - I'm talking about Scandinavia, of course - you will see more national flags than you might think given their "leftist" reputation. In Sweden, ordinary houses sometime have flagpoles in the garden, I've seen them. None of this is coincidental.
Patriotism can be a dangerous slippery slope, yes. But it's also what empowers strong states and collective action. Nobody wants a patriotism-free world more than the billionaires that everyone hates here. Be careful what you wish for.

It's a good step to consider patriotic ideology as prelude to fascism and tribalism. Welcome in the world of great oportunities, free from borders and labels put with force in your mind. Welcome there, human!

On a semi-related note, I’m glad that Superman’s motto was updated to “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow” back in 2021.
- Oh god, I didn't think of how awful that old motto would read now.
  Poor Captain America is fucked, it's part of his name.

I may have a chance to travel to Europe for the first time in my life, and I'm worried that the Ugly American stereotype will be factored in to my reception. Probably won't go until things calm down here/the nukes fly.
- We traveled to Spain while wearing a Fuck Trump button in 2018 (Yes cringe i know) . You wouldn't believe the amount of love and laughs we got. Very nice place btw.
- We (or at least loads of us) understand that while your government is deplorable, a lot of ordinary Americans are not. I guess it would also depend on where you go and how. If you're decked out in TRUMP/MAGA-clothes, then I suppose you might meet quite a few people who will instantly want nothing to do with you. But if you're a normal person, you most likely won't have any issues, aside from questions about U.S. issues.
  Just come over. We won't bite. Don't put off your plans because of this. Enjoy yourself and walk around in a sane country for a while. ;)
- Definitely go if you can. I've never experienced any sort of discrimination based on my American nationality in Europe. In general, I think it's assumed that if you're willing to travel and are respectful of the local culture you aren't one of the bad ones. You might get a few questions about your experiences or feelings about the current situation, but that's the most I've seen.
  That said, some cities have recently become pretty anti-tourism in general, especially in Spain and Italy from what I've heard. But this isn't against Americans, it's against all tourists driving up housing prices.
  
  Thanks! That is good to know.

You are not wrong. Seeing jingoism and corporatized patriotism for the sham that they are really opens your eyes to how much of it truly exists. A person who wants no politics in life is often fine with a national anthem, a gigantic flag stretched across a stadium, with jets flying over for a Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and has absolutely no idea that it is political propaganda for nationalism and perpetual war.
In my 50+years here, it has only gotten worse and worse. We've always stuck our military where it doesn't belong, back to the beginning with genociding indigenous peoples here. Now we stick military bases all over the planet and strong arm every other nation into unbalanced alliance. We create conflict for oil and to line the pockets of defense contractors. We aid those currently committing genocide and protect the perpetrators from receiving international justice. Nationalism and fascism snap together like two magnets.
Every time I am told to stand for a national anthem at a professional for-profit sporting event, I think of these things and remain sitting.
- Do you think it's possible to live in harmony with the rest of the world? If the united states conceded its powerful position, who would take over as the new world power? (Probably China) Would you be better off? Would the world in general be better off with someone else in charge? Would you prefer to stand for the Chinese flag or the American flag? Or do you actually think we are ready for a world where there are no super powers?
  
  That's a lot of questions, many of which I don't know. All I know is that it is possible for the US to close all the bases and live in harmony with other countries around the globe. It is, however, improbable due to immense wealth among industrial sectors in the United States who hold the actual cards. Their greed will inevitably lead to full scale war as they wither and cede power.

Nope, same thing happened to me in Canada after the clown convoy. Canada Day was never the same nor celebrated since

For me it's been longer than that. I am a queer Canadian and anytime I have travelled the US or stayed with friends and seen any group carrying or wearing American flags that hasn't given me the "ick" so much as rung alarm bells that those people are not safe.
Thing is, it's the same thing with the Canadian flag. Any group flying too many Canadian flags outside of Canada Day is likely to be Conservative and anti-queer. Anti-Trans protesters or anti-vaxxers on highway overpasses? Canadian flag. Lifted truck soaring down the highway with a "Fuck Trudeau" bumper sticker - Canada flag. Hoard of protesters demanding book bans, group of people protesting Pride with a "you are gunna burn pedos" sign, antiDEI crusader mob - Canadian flag. It doesn't take long before one starts to draw certain conclusions about a person's character when they wave it around. For those of us trans folk who can it's a sign to hide. A literal red flag.
Amoungst the left up here the flag is a complicated symbol. Many of us on the West Coast see it as a symbol of colonial practice and an insensitive declaration of an occupying nation on stolen territory for people who are still here and whose original sovereignty is still not properly acknowledged. It's not a symbol of pride and if personally used as such it's a sign of insensitivity and work to be done. At the same time I would not say that I am not proud of my Country for how far we've come. We are a nation in therapy who has the opportunity to put the work in to getting over some really bad murderous and selfish flaws and try new things to make things right. When I had an American friend up here it took a bit for him to understand how seriously the effort is to recon with our past and he treated us like a utopia of leftist sentiment but it is like therapy, yeah we might be putting the work in - but we can see how much further we need to go and praise doesn't hit us as "job well done" it's a reminder of how shitty it still is. But if anyone ever thinks that this complicated and nuanced relationship to country would stop us from rallying together to fight to preserve our rights to keep working towards that better future they would be dead wrong.
So I understand pretty well where you're coming from but for a lot of us this isn't a particularly new thing. It just is affecting more and more people as they wake up to realizing how these symbols are used.

My hunch – both the Red Tribe and the Blue Tribe, for whatever reason, identify “America” with the Red Tribe. Ask people for typically “American” things, and you end up with a very Red list of characteristics – guns, religion, barbecues, American football, NASCAR, cowboys, SUVs, unrestrained capitalism.
That means the Red Tribe feels intensely patriotic about “their” country, and the Blue Tribe feels like they’re living in fortified enclaves deep in hostile territory.
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/

You're in good company. Germans have a similar relationship with their flag.

In my opinion, true patriotism requires being critical of your nation. A patriot doesn't blindly let their nation go to hell. The Republicans that have take the word "patriot" are not patriots, in my opinion. They've ruined the word. A patriot wants to find the issues with their nation and improve them, not yell about being the best and to ignore everything wrong.
Basically, yes. I feel the same as you about the flag, but because it's been used as a symbol of blind faith, not patriotism. I feel patriotic pride in being critical, not in saying a pledge or anything like that.

No, you've started to see things more clearly.

It really only feels appropriate to see it upside down these days.
I agree that our history has always been fucked up. But there are degrees of fucked up-ness and we're officially leaving the measurement scale.
It's fucking over.

Same, I just feel kind of gross now when I see it. Sad as I still love my country, just not what it's doing now.

Tbh I think flag hate or angst is about as useful/less as flag worship. If you need something to be preoccupied with, why not make it a problem you can put that energy into doing something about where you live - like homeless people or food aid.
I might be reacting this way because I've been getting recent emails from my college about changing the school mascot, which is a "pioneer". When I was there I don't remember even being aware that there was a mascot. But apparently they think "pioneer" might be too closely associated with colonialism and they've decided this is an important issue. My attitude is create a Native American scholarship (or anything that actually does something) - don't obsess on imagery.

Any day you're able to rise above the cult of nationalism is a good day.

Even as a kid, I never understood how the USA flag could be a symbol of "freedom" while conscription exists. Today it has gone from a generally indifferent lie to borderline offensive

Yes and no.
You can can display an American flag and not be a facist. Facists can’t co-opt the US flag.
The flags that look similar to the American flag, but have a blue line or are black/grey are the ones that cringe me up. Those are actual false flags and are anti-patriotic. Right up there with the “rebel” flag.
Maybe get a tiny little flag and put it in your garden.

The same happens in Spain if you are leftist since the civil war, even before maybe.

I am a US citizen but have been living abroad for the last 4.5 years. I can get by with Norwegian language but didn’t really feel hyper compelled to speak it all the time as English is spoken widely and well here. But especially since the inauguration it’s like, I don’t want strangers to realise that not only am I a foreigner, I’m an American. I try to be a good ambassador through my actions and words, but there’s only so much I can do to distance myself from broad brush strokes of “Americans” anymore and honestly is embarrassing. Also I feel deeply sad that I feel like I can never go home. That place just isn’t real anymore.

I am from Canada, and while the flag could go either way for me, mounties, even in their blood-red uniforms do turn my stomach. (Paintings by Kent Monkman, showcasing the "Sixties Scoop"
Our past further back has not been much help.
In addition to the physical appropriation of land was the colonial effort to eliminate the transmission of cultural identity, traditional skills, and connection to the land. Beginning in 1883 (while this was the date of the first federally established church school, similar institutions existed as early as the 1830s, years before Canadian federation) Indian Residential Schools (IRSs) were established in Canada (as were American Indian Boarding Schools in 1862). Children were forcibly removed from their families and were institutionalized in IRSs with the explicit goal of ‘taking the Indian out of the child’. These mandated church-run IRSs endeavoured to save the souls of the ‘savages’ by immersing them in Euro–Christian beliefs and eradicating access to traditional socialization values, language, practices and ways of life. By the 1930s, roughly 75% of First Nations children attended IRSs, as did many Métis and Inuit children. The last of the IRSs was closed in 1996, but by then several generations of children had experienced the mistreatment that abounded in these institutions.
Then to really prove we could be as evil as everyone thinks we're polite, we added this gem to our crown.
"It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habituating so closely in the residential schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards a final solution of our Indian Problem." -Duncan Campbell Scott to BC Indian Agent Gen. Major D. MacKay.
And there are those who say it is in the past, and everyone is crying over things from long ago, yet 1996 is not so long ago for Residential Schools, and our police deny any ongoing wrong-doings. I for one do not feel patriotism for our past, though I have some small hope for our future.