On the Fourth of July, we as Americans will celebrate the 232nd anniversary of our country’s independence. On the fourth of November, we will elect our 44th president.

I said we: This is our country. This is my country.

I am an American: I did not say black American. I did not say African American.

I said American.

This does not dismiss the descriptive reality of who I am, or disregard how others see me, or disavow how I see myself. I also refer to myself as a black American or African-American. Others refer to me by these same descriptions — sometimes by names unkind. Indeed, my Americanism — meaning my being recognized and accepted as an American — is sometimes challenged.

Having traveled abroad to a few countries in Europe and Africa, it is quickly evident that when others see me outside of America, they see an American. It is ironic that my Americanism is more distinguishable outside the country than in. It is also disconcerting that as black Americans, we are constantly questioned as to our patriotism, pride and love of country.

Do we love our country? Are we proud of our country? Are we patriotic?

These are questions Michelle Obama recently addressed on the TV show “The View” after saying in February that for the first time in her life, she felt proud of her country. It is a question her husband and presumptive Democratic Party nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois faced when he was seen without an American flag on his lapel.

Patriotism, pride and love of country race up the flagpole every Fourth of July and every presidential election year, and on numerous occasions in between.

For the first time, Michelle Obama felt proud of her country? I certainly understood what she meant and felt.

Her comment was a recognition of America’s less than stellar past with regard to its treatment of blacks, and a salute to the progress that white and other nonblack Americans have made in living up to the principles of a Democratic nation.

So to challenge what is really a comment on the progress of America and turn it into a question of her patriotism seems disingenuous.

I think the asking of the question indicates a degree of ignorance, a measure of insensitivity. The truth is when a group has been historically and routinely denied by its government and majority citizens many of the rights that others have, it is only natural that that group’s love and pride in its country would not be the same as those who reap the full benefits of their Americanism. As such, I feel the need to flip this outrageous question about patriotism to the following statement: Ask not whether blacks have been patriotic to America; ask whether America has been patriotic to blacks.

Perhaps it is presumptuous, but I will say it anyway: No one should call into question the patriotism of black Americans or our love for this country or our loyalty to it. We have historically given more love and loyalty to America than America has given to us.

No one should ask black Americans to explain our love for this country or the degree of our love for this country. That we love it to whatever degree should be enough. To that degree, this is my country. This is our country. I am an American. We are Americans.

Before Barack Obama’s presumptive nomination, there was one other time I felt a particularly strong Americanism inside me. That time was 9/11 and the days that followed. It was not a matter of feeling love or pride in being American. It was a matter of being American. I felt this way because those who struck America that day did not distinguish among race, religion, ethnicity, gender or anything but the fact that we were Americans. My feeling of being American was forged through a shared horrific, tragic experience. It was feeling American from a negative experience.

The pride that Michelle Obama and other black Americans feel about their country as a result of Barack Obama’s candidacy for president of the United States of America is one forged through a positive experience. It was a nod to an America that most blacks thought we would not ever see — nonblack Americans voting for someone black to possibly be the president of the most powerful nation on Earth.