Critical Reading: Does Olympian Gwen Berry “Disdain America”?

Another anthem protest, another round of politicians and commentators insisting that athletes and progressives hate America.

In the June 28th the Wall Street Journal published Gerard Baker’s “Progressives Disdain America but Love Being Free to Do So.” In the column, Baker contends that protesting progressives don’t love the US and implied that Olympic track and field athlete Gwen Berry herself was denouncing the country by turning away from the flag during the anthem. But does Berry hate the US? Was she really denouncing the country?

Premise: “Progressives Disdain America but Love Being Free to Do So: If a Chinese athlete made a show of discomfort at her national anthem, she’d be persecuted, not celebrated.”

To see if this premise holds water, the first step is to look for the missing facts.

What actually happened?

While the National Anthem was being played during the medal ceremony at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials, Gwen Berry “turned away from the flag to face the stands.”

Is there anything else in this particular situation that would be important to know?

Gwen Berry was one of two US athletes who was punished for participating in anthem protests back in 2019.

Isn’t it kind of weird that they were playing the National Anthem for the medal ceremony where all of the competitors are from the United States?

Yes. That’s very weird. And it turns out that the anthem wasn’t being played for the ceremony; it was being played according to a schedule.

Anything else?

Berry said that she felt like she was set up because she was told that the anthem was going to be played before she and her competitors walked out. And the question of whether the anthem being played five minutes later than scheduled was a really strange coincidence or a set-up is really up to interpretation.

So, doesn’t this show that Berry does disdain America?

Here is where context and knowledge of Gwen Berry’s history is important. So, the next step here is to figure out why she started protesting in the first place.

When you do a search for “Gwen Berry 2019 protest,” several articles about her and her life story come up. According to a 2019 ESPN article, Gwen Berry is from Ferguson, Missouri. Yes,that Ferguson, Missouri. And she has a teenage son. Although Barack Obama was maligned for saying that his son would have looked like Trayvon Martin, it’s not really that much of a logical leap to see how the parent of a black child could be personally moved by police shootings.

This still doesn’t show that Berry doesn’t disdain America.

Valid point. Let’s see what Gwen Berry said, in her own words:

“At the last part — ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ — something just came over me,” she said. “It made me want to say, like, ‘OK, this is a great country, this is a great land, but as Americans, are we really standing for what the anthem says?’ And I don’t think right now we are.”

And yesterday:

¹

There you have it: Gwen Berry said that the US is a great country and a great land, but that we have more work to do. I think it’s important to take a close look at Berry’s choice of words: She specifically said, “as Americans, are we really standing for what the anthem says?”

So, why did she start protesting in 2019?

She meant it as a protest of the issues she sees as larger than any single president: housing discrimination, the trend of white police officers killing unarmed black people, daily racial micro-aggressions, public schools that don’t teach enough black history.

Conclusion: Gwen Berry is on record saying that the United States is a great country, but she wants to bring awareness to issues of unfairness.

Key Takeaways:

• Never take a writer’s conclusions about another person’s motives at face value. Try to find what the person actually said and meant.
• Find the missing nuance before coming to any conclusions.
• Do background research to figure out the proper context of a person’s statement (or protest).

1. Image Text: Gwen Berry Tweet from July 28 2021: “Thank you! I never said I hated this country! People try to put words in my mouth but they can’t. That’s why I speak out. I LOVE MY PEOPLE. black fist” Quote tweet: William Claye: “The messages that people are sending Gwen Berry really hurts my soul, man. Gwen, I stand by you and I hope one day the people of this country understand that everything you’re doing is for the LOVE of your people, not because you HATE this country. black fist” ↩