DL Hughley: Black Love Of Country & Hard Truths

D.L. Hughley: What Does It Mean To Love America?

In this Notes From The GED Section, D.L. Hughley unpacks a viral moment from scholar Eddie Glaude Jr., who said he does not love America and never has. That admission stops D.L. in his tracks, because he believes most Black people have wrestled with that same question at some point in their lives.

From childhood, we are trained to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, celebrate the Fourth of July, and embrace patriotic stories about freedom and equality. As we grow older and see more of the truth about this country’s history and present, those stories start to clash with what we actually experience as Black people in America.

D.L. argues that if you put every Black person of a certain age on a lie detector and asked, “Do you love this country?”, the honest result would likely be ambiguity at best. He says he knows he loves this country, even if he cannot fully explain or quantify it.

To illustrate, he compares that dynamic to a complicated parent–child relationship, where a child may love a mother who never clearly loved them back in a healthy way. In the same way, Black Americans can feel attached to this country and invested in it, while still questioning whether the nation truly loves them in return.

Is America An Abusive Relationship For Black People?

From there, D.L. asks a sharper question: what is love, really, and what is love of country? He turns to 1 Corinthians 13, where the Bible defines love as patient, kind, not arrogant, not rude, and not rejoicing in wrongdoing but rejoicing in the truth. Love, according to scripture, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

D.L. challenges listeners to hold America up against that standard and answer honestly: has this country treated Black people in a way that looks anything like that definition of love? If you took the real history and present reality of how Black people have been treated and described it as a romantic relationship to a support group, most people would call it an abusive relationship, not a loving one.

D.L. closes by saying he is certain he loves this country, but he has never known—and may never know—how this country truly feels about him and people who look like him. That tension is the heart of this powerful Notes From The GED Section.