In an increasingly antiracist era when problematic iconography — ranging from Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben to even the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee car and country band Lady Antebellum’s name — is being reassessed, revised or retired, America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” seems to be striking a wrong note.
Last week, protesters in San Francisco toppled a statue of the song’s composer, Francis Scott Key, a known slaveholder who once said that African Americans were “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.” This week, Liana Morales, an Afro-Latinx student at New York’s Urban Assembly School for the Performing Arts, refused to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at her virtual graduation ceremony, explaining to the Wall Street Journal, “With everything that’s happening, if I stand there and sing it, I’m being complicit to a system that has oppressed people of color.” Instead, Morales performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a hymn widely considered to be the “Black national anthem.”
So, is it time for this country to dispense with “The Star-Spangled Banner” and adopt a new anthem with a less troubling history and a more inclusive message? Historian and scholar Daniel E. Walker, the author of No More, No More: Slavery and Cultural Resistance in Havana and New Orleans and producer of the documentary How Sweet the Sound: Gospel in Los Angeles, says yes.
“The 53-year-old in me says, we can't change things that have existed forever. But then there are these young people who say that America needs to live up to its real creed,” Walker tells Yahoo Entertainment. “And so, I do side with the people who say that we should rethink this as the national anthem, because this is about the deep-seated legacy of slavery and white supremacy in America, where we do things over and over and over again that are a slap in the face of people of color and women. We do it first because we knew what we were doing and we wanted to be sexist and racist. And now we do it under the guise of ‘legacy.’”
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A Nation of fools soon forgets where there is no justice there is no law... and where there is no law, the wicked rule... The foolish will not stand in the day of trial nor shall history record their deeds; for the fool perishes in his ignorance... and his progeny go with him.
I will always stand for the National Anthem and for nothing else!! Except for our Lord and Savior to Him I will gladly bow!!
Our National Anthem is the greatest ever for the greatest nation EVER!!! NEVER change our great national anthem until King Jesus returns!!!
Amen to that‼️💪❗️
Lynsay Parker is the yahoo music editor!
Her statement about the Star Spangled Banner is wrong! And hurting her own company, because I, for one, have no need to ever use yahoo again!
she has NO idea 💡 of the history of the anthem, and she SHOULD GO‼️‼️‼️
Better idea - -eliminate yahoo and replace it with something American!
That IS Agood idea!
Daniel Walker should shop the countries of the world. When he finds an anthem he likes, he should stay there. At least one month. Then come home and sing our national anthem with some understanding.
Right now it looks like we are headed toward a civil war. Any group or groups who push to that point has no idea what they are doing. At no time in mankind's history has any country as heavily armed as the United States of America been in a civil war. Make no mistake about it millions maybe tens of millions of Americans will die even if it is not a war of attrition like the war of 1861 - 1865. Other nations may actually get involved. It could be the beginning of something much worse than a civil war if anything could be.
What is currently happening has no chance of coming out on top they will absolutely lose but right now they see themselves as undefeatable because there is no real push back to their acts and they see themselves as all powerful because the democrats are bowing to them and they are in democrat controlled states and cities. Even streets are being renamed to appease them. They yesterday promised to burn down the system if their demands were not met. Because of the effort to appease them things will get worse much worse. The pretend peaceful protestors are wrong and will pay the price in the future for their mistake. Personally I have no problem for making them pay I have absolutely no sympathy for any of them. Yes I am a veteran. I have no problem fighting such bad intentioned idiots such as these rioters and looters who pretend to be peaceful demonstrators. They are domestic terrorists. The mainstream media describe them as peaceful while buildings are burning. The MSM is guilty for what is happening at this very moment. Make no mistake about it these people would kill anyone disagreeing with their position if they thought for one minute they could get away with it. It will soon come to that under the current conditions. However, the pretend democrats want President Trump to send the military in because they think that will get them the November election. They are wrong there as well.
In the final analysis however, if anyone thinks things cannot get worst they are dreaming the so called democrats will go to any length to get back in power. This includes killing Americans. Their goal is Obama’s promised fundamental transformation. What we did not know when he promised it but do know now is that transformation is into a socialist state meaning either a communist, fascist or marxist country with a touch of Islam. That means they intend to destroy our Constitution Representative Republic and free enterprise economic system. In other words they mean to destroy America as we know it and take everyone’s liberties from them. Many of this nations citizens are currently taking our God given freedoms, guaranteed by our constitution, for granted and are willing to give them up and put themselves in the hands of government thinking that is better then freedom. Nothing could possibly be farther from the truth. History proves that. So once again those who do not know history are in this case DOOMED to repeat it. America however, as a whole, will fight this promised transformation. There may be as many as a hundred million who, like me, will fight this destruction if it comes to that. We are armed thanks to that pesky second amendment which was put there for just such an occasion.
Yes, if civil war must come best it happens under Trump, it would be possible for soldiers to obey their oath to the constitution.
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