National Anthem
We Didn’t Ask For This: NFL To Play Black National Anthem Before Games In Week 1
Source: Drew Angerer / Getty The NFL has long been a breeding ground for racism and inequity and it appears by most accounts that the league snuffed out Colin Kaepernick for using his given right of expression to boot. Supposedly turning a corner, NFL officials are graciously (expressed with all the sarcasm) allowing the National Black Anthem to be played before all the games held in the first week of the upcoming season, an act nobody needed or asked for. As reported first by The Undefeated via a source, the NFL’s hollow act of solidarity with the plight of Black folks will feature the playing or singing of “Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing” and officials will examine other ways to call attention to the same injustices Kaepernick called out during his playing days. That same source said that the...
Activists Call for John Lennon’s “Imagine” to Replace US National Anthem
“The Star-Spangled Banner” doesn’t seem that racist, as long as you skip the later verses and ignore the white supremacist who wrote it. Taking those aspects into account, however, some activists are calling for America to find a new national anthem, and one popular proposal has put forth John Lennon’s “Imagine”. “But wait,” you may be saying. “I’ve sung ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ for years, and I’m not racist. Besides, those patriotic high notes really make my rocket glare.” And it’s true, the one verse that we trot out at sporting events is merely unsettlingly violent, rather than outwardly prejudiced. If that’s the only part of Francis Scott Key’s 1814 poem that you’re familiar with, then the history behind the third verse will be a bit of a shocker. In the offending passage, Francis Sc...
- 1
- 2
