How to rethink what it means to be a patriot, according to a social psychologist

Key Facts

Dolly Chugh, a social psychologist and the Jacob B. Melnick Term Professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, has been studying what she calls the “psychology of good people” for two decades, and she knows firsthand how challenging it is to have narratives about self-identity and nationhood challenged.
George is now 85, and it moved me to tears to hear him speak both of what a grave mistake his country made and of his love of that country.
Grit is something Americans actually take a lot of pride in having, so this is just applying it to our relationship with our country and its past.
Of course, I tsk-tsked at the moments of racism in the books but never really connected that to the broader societal context for my kids — or even for myself.