Citizenship as uncritical law-obedience is ethically indefensible when states harm communities.

Evidence

The major political goal, he suggests, is to educate people to be citizens and future leaders. Citizenship is often seen as teaching people to obey the law and those who are authorized to enforce it. This may appear to be unquestionable, but what if the law is that of Nazi Germany? In the U.S., there has been heavy emphasis on teaching patriotism through the Pledge of Allegiance, patriotic songs and school spirit. But what if one comes from a community that has been mistreated by the U.S. government, such as Native Americans or Japanese Americans who were imprisoned during World War II—should they be required to express love for a country that has treated them with contempt? — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 268

Categorization

• DEFINE: Poses the core question that ecojustice pedagogy uses to reframe citizenship education away from blind patriotism.
• XREF: Connects to the polyad thread on law/institutions and to Bowers’ critique of centric thinking as a shared root. — connects to: Decentralized decision-making by those directly impacted is intrinsic to democracy. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 339; The autonomous-individual ideal of citizenship structurally prevents acknowledging group-based harms. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 381; Individualist citizenship logic hides group-based harm and privilege. (+2 more)
• QUESTION: The Native American / Japanese American examples would reward specific classroom-historical grounding.

Broader Connections

• Individual moral responsibility justifies disobeying unjust laws #expands (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 819
• The autonomous-individual ideal of citizenship structurally prevents acknowledging group-based harms. #corroborates (0.82) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 381
• Individualist citizenship logic hides group-based harm and privilege. #corroborates (0.80)
• Legal indeterminacy is inherent and requires a justified role for conscience #expands (0.78) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 786