I love America more than any other country in this world; and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

Baldwin makes this remark in the early 1950s, after leaving the United States for France and reflecting on the racial and moral crises he saw at home. Writing as a Black American expatriate who remained deeply invested in the nation’s fate, he frames criticism not as disloyalty but as a duty owed to a country one loves. The line appears in an essay that argues Americans often mistake self-congratulation for virtue and resist honest self-examination—especially regarding race—yet such examination is necessary if the country is to become what it claims to be.

The sentence reverses a common accusation that dissent is unpatriotic. For Baldwin, love of country is not sentimental approval but a demanding commitment to truth: if America is to live up to its professed ideals, it must be confronted with its failures. “Perpetually” underscores that this obligation is ongoing, not limited to moments of crisis. The quote also captures Baldwin’s broader moral stance: criticism is an act of responsibility and hope, insisting that the nation can change only if it stops treating its myths as reality.