America’s Promise
Americans are looking for love in all the wrong places—most specifically, Washington D.C. America promises us freedom and opportunity, but certainly not love. Jason Whitlock, sports journalist and podcaster, explains.
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Script:
I want to tell you something that everybody once knew, and now many have either forgotten or never learned.
Pay very close attention: America promises you freedom. America does not promise you love.
Let’s start with the freedom part. It’s all right there in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Free speech. Freedom to practice the religion of your choice. The purpose of government is to protect your freedom. Period.
America was a rough-and-tumble place in its early days. It still is. Let’s hope it always remains so. 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.
America is a land of opportunity for anyone of any color. Just follow some basic rules—get an education, work hard, act responsibly—and you’ll have a good shot at a good life. But you might also fail. You might fail a bunch of times… and then succeed. Or you might succeed and blow it all. That’s America—a never-ending dance of risk and reward. All made possible by freedom.
Freedom is America’s source of power, and the denial of that power to black people and others at the inception of this nation and for nearly 200 years after its founding remains a stain and a source of pain. Yes, some of the Founders had slaves. But almost all of them knew that it was morally wrong and would one day end.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the words, “All men are created equal,” the slavery question was resolved. The only issue was how and when. And it took a lot longer than it should have. But it did end. And a lot of good people died on the battlefield to see that it did. And when it ended, giants like Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass understood that black Americans would have to succeed on their own as free men and women. They had no illusions that the government would save them. They only wanted what all Americans should ever want the government to do: protect their freedom.
But the Founders never promised love—not to whites or blacks or anyone else.
During his famous “I have a dream speech,” Martin Luther King referenced freedom 20 times. He never once spoke the word “love.”
Why not? Because America has nothing to do with that. If you want love—and we all do—look to God, your family, and your friends.
The government doesn’t love you and isn’t supposed to. The government is a poor and abusive provider. It offers the bare minimum and fosters a dependency that undermines freedom.
During the 2020 “Black Lives Matter” season, NBA players actually wore jerseys with the slogan “Love Us” emblazoned on the back. You can’t demand love from people. 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.
Love is your mother’s smile or that look your kid gives you when you come home from work. Love is that man or woman who protects you when you’re scared and provides a home where you can flourish. And love is what God offers you every moment of every day.
To the government, you’re just a Social Security number—nothing more. And I’m okay with that. Because I don’t want or expect the government to know or care about me. Mostly, I want the government to leave me alone.
I’m proud to be an American. And I’m proud to be a black man in America. 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. 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.
For the complete script as well as FACTS & SOURCES, visit https://www.prageru.com/video/americas-promise
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1:49 except it wasn't and slaves existed for hundreds of years after that
Man I really hate big gubbermint. Big, thick ass booty gubbermint. Always barging into my life and attempting to give me an extra paycheck. Like, leave me alone big booty gubbermint. I’ll call you when I need you, next time I see a pride flag in an elementary school.
Beautifully written.
❤️❤️❤️‼️
Wait wait wait, if they knew it was wrong, then y did they keep enslaved africans? Yall are makin no sense
Government benefits and public services aren’t oppression at all. Human rights abuses are oppression. Hence oppression is persecution, authoritarianism, etc. Persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, now that’s true oppression.
No, you know how people become oppressed? Those magical pieces of paper you just came over.
Holy shit if you use your brain for 5 seconds it's so easy to see how these arguments are falacious and extremely stupid
I don't think PragerU understands the idea that capitalism, corporations, and inventions are literally all to make life the easiest thing. We don't want to work. Which would you choose?
A world where you never had to work a day in your life and you could make up your own work or do whatever you wanted solely because you wanted to.
Or
A world where you have to work. You have to do everything yourself.
While yes the world where you have to work may seem good when you think about overcoming and getting your goals. Remind yourself that the same is easily applicable in the first world just you don't die if you fail and everyone is able to have the basic needs of living a good life. Sure it can be better, but in a perfect world we should all have the essentials to live
Why do you only quote MLK when he fits your narrative. It's disturbing…
Hahaha this is hilarious. What does love have to do with anything? Is that code for welfare programs? You know that European countries with stronger welfare states score better on the freedom index and have higher economic mobility? All of life is risk vs. reward, but what if there was less risk so that when you do fail, you know, you don't die? Or if the reward were easier to get, so that more people could live a productive and prosperous life? And didn't this guy call BLM as bad as the KKK and criticize Black people for not liking the national anthem? Now he thinks they're America's moral conscience? Lol
Jason Whitlock: You can't demand love from people!
Also Jason Whitlock: If you want love, look to God.
God: I DEMAND THAT YOU LOVE ME AND IF YOU DON'T I'LL CURSE YOU WITH DISASTERS SO TERRIBLE THAT YOU'LL HAVE TO EAT YOUR OWN CHILDREN TO SURVIVE
Martin Luther King and Fredrick Douglass would absolutely not have been on the side of modern day republicans you know
A refreshing take.
americans seem to worship america as thought it were a god, not a nation
The government should implode and stop existing :trollface:
Not everyone is Christian bro.
“Yes, some of the Founders owned slaves, but they all knew it was morally wrong and would one day end”.
Ah, yes, because there was no way that at least they themselves could free their own slaves the minute they “all knew it was morally wrong”. No, they had to wait a couple years or even until 1865 for them and their descendants to get comfortable with abolishing their own human property.
If your argument is going to mention the Founders owning slavery, make sure that your counterargument actually ends up making them look better. Otherwise, it’s better to just not make that admission at all. 😆
it is horrifying how this video is about nothing
Prageru is just about telling black people racism isn’t that bad and saying helping the environment doesn’t do anything
Most of the founding fathers also knew that we could not share a government with the formerly enslaved when they were freed. And they were right. We are not compatible.
I implore you please take this doodoo off ad circulation, sometimes I’m working out or cleaning dishes, can’t skip and have to listen to this garbage
Jaso Whitlock is a great and brave patriot
Sometimes I agree with things said in these videos and sometimes I do not. After watching the segment between 1:03 and 1:23 I think about how I have been forced to eat the bad products of both Liberal and Conservative politics and never got any of the good stuff out of either of them. Case in point I went to the scam school ITT Tech (google ITT Tech scam for more on that) and a good part of why we could not sue the school is because mainly conservatives refused to provide contract enforcement when students were scammed and they worked really hard to stop student loan forgiveness to defrauded students. I guess having to live off the Ramen noodle diet for almost two decades paying on fraud loans with no decent employment and not being able to afford a family is all a part of the Conservative toughening up process?
"But they knew it was bad"
Dude that makes it worse not better lol. Also, how was slavery resolved when we had a whole war coming up to "resolve" it and even then we still had jim crow, redlining, Tulsa, etc.
America claims to be free, but has the biggest inmate-population in the world.
so the government promises freedom except when you commit a non violent dug offense, then the government can kidnap you in a cage for decades. Oh by the way we are a free country. 🤦♂️
I like how Jason Ruckus Whitlock contradicts himself at least 3 times in this video. Clearly he did not write the script fir this video or he has a hard time remembering his hypocritical stances
If America promises you freedom then it's only a rather recent Mantra.
based
I want gov to leave me alone and stop taking hard earned money and flushing it down the toilet!
we were close to dr kings dream. over a decade ago. now were farther away, in the name of "progress".
God does not love an irredeemable nation….
the descendants of Jacobs brother are rejected, no redemption no repentance no salvation….
Jacobs brothers descendants built a city on iniquity, removed landmarks, and blasphemous lies on Christ being a 👱🏻….
"No majority white country has ever been led by a black man"
Did you idiots already forget that Obama exists and was president for 8 years?