Cognitive Dissonance is a psychological condition that, in layman’s terms, means that what one believes and what one does are in conflict with each other. The question of whether or not America is foundationally racist or not is a difficult one. Some argue that America is unquestionably founded on slavery and the subjugation of Black folks. Others argue that America is unquestionably founded on freedom for all people. While slavery may be a foundational sin that we all still struggle with the inheritance of, we still very strongly believe in those tenets of freedom. This is a matter of cognitive dissonance, as will be extrapolated on below.
America is the country whose foundational document reads “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Words written by a White slaveowner; does that make them any less relevant? Jefferson did not write that all “White men are created equal.” One of the criticisms leveled against Nikole Hannah-Jones, the primary author, organizer, and editor of “The 1619 Project” was the language used regarding the Revolutionary War, which was suggesting that the only reason that the colonists revolted against Britain was to preserve the institution of slavery. David North, in the Foreword to The New York Times’ 1619 Project and the Racialist Falsification of History, makes extended discussion of this point ultimately arguing that although there may have been some secondary, personal motivations surrounding slavery during the Revolution, asserting that the Revolution was ONLY about preserving slavery is a reductive and misleading representation of the events. The Revolution was ultimately about freedom, but as was seen in the early days of this country’s history, that meant a freedom for white men.
Americans believe so strongly in a philosophy of freedom; Americans’ revolutionary rights and freedoms include freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from unjust persecution. Later, Roosevelt forwarded the “Five Freedoms,” which include many of the same freedoms that were a part of America’s foundational philosophy: “Freedom of speech,” “Freedom of worship,” “Freedom from want,” and “Freedom from fear.” Americans have always considered themselves “soldiers of freedom.” Whatever great works American thought you pick up, whether it be Thomas Paine, Frederick Douglas, or John Dewey, you will find it dripping with meditation on freedom as part of America’s national identity. Yet, study up on the history, and you shall find that “freedom” has often been a thing that too many of American’s live without. Slavery was an active practice for much of America’s history, since before it’s founding and for nearly the first 90 years of this nation’s existence. Since then, the country has seen nearly a hundred years of Jim Crow, and persistent economic inequality that has been intentionally designed to target marginalized communities.
What America believes and what America has done exist within what seems like two completely different worlds, but they are both our own. America can be a country that invests so much of it’s soul into freedom, yet it must act accordingly. As has been seen, this country has time and again acted against people of color. We talk about freedom from fear and freedom of want, yet there are millions of Americans, disproportionately Americans from communities of color, that are living their lives in fear and want. As any clinical psychologist will tell you, the way to resolving cognitive is to either adjust ones beliefs or one’s actions. To leave cognitive dissonance unresolved only causes stress and discontentment, and there has been a fair share of that in recent history alone. So will America adjust it’s philosophy of freedom to coincide with it’s actions, or shall America adjust it’s actions and institutions to really reflect this philosophy of freedom?