An America Worth Celebrating?

I’ve been working on something special (!!) — a brand new history project that asks “Can the past teach us something about making it through in the present?” I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

🚨 In fact, I’d love your help shaping it. Please consider taking 90 seconds to complete this short survey

Umm… Why did America’s 250th birthday feel so flat?

The Fourth of July 2026 came and went, and despite it being America’s most noteworthy birthday of the century so far, it felt a lot less special than it should have.

Some would say the lackluster vibes were because of the president’s insistence on making the country’s official celebration programming all about himself. Others may blame the fact that we are living in the least patriotic period in recent American history.

I think it was something different:

They got the story wrong.

The very weird narrative that the Trump administration has been trying to force feed America wasn’t just habitually inaccurate, it centered on the most boring parts of this country’s story.

My (not so) hot take is that this was by design. As I have said before, part of the reason why certain political leaders have worked so hard to destroy, diminish and delegitimize Black history, indigenous history (and the broader history of resistance in this country), is because these histories are the blueprint for how to defeat fascism in every generation.

In this way, I believe that history in its fullness holds the keys to a better future. I believe that the way out of the messes we’ve found ourselves in is to look back and learn how our forbears made it out the messes of their time.

I think USA250 should have been focused on that story — turning the lens away from the enslavers, oppressors and charlatans and toward the people who challenged them; the America worth celebrating, remembering and learning from.

That’s why I’m launching a brand new history project to explore the stories of defiant, courageous change-makers!

We’ll dig into the hidden and under discussed stories of activists, freedom fighters, barrier-breakers and rebels — the people who dared to push back against the status quo — the folks who were truly about that life.

I’ll share more about this project over the next few weeks, so make sure you subscribe to this newsletter to stay in the know!