It doesn’t seem that long ago that the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the black national anthem, at the Super Bowl was the big controversy. The performance of the song at sporting events has sparked controversy, as many feel that it is racially divisive to have two anthems driving a wedge between black Americans and the rest of the nation.
Even liberal commentator Bill Maher doesn’t like it. “I think we should have one national anthem,” he said back in 2021. “I think when you go down a road where you’re having two different national anthems, colleges sometimes now have different graduation ceremonies for Black and white, separate dorms… This is what I mean: Segregation! You’ve inverted the idea. We’re going back to that under a different name.”
Woke activists may have succeeded in getting a second anthem performed at sporting events, but some think that our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” should be axed completely because it’s allegedly problematic. Why? Because Francis Scott Key was born into a wealthy, slave-holding family. Activist and journalist Kevin Powell argued a couple of years ago that something “more inclusive” should be chosen in its stead. His suggestion was John Lennon’s song “Imagine,” which Powell argued is “the most beautiful, unifying, all-people, all-backgrounds-together kind of song you could have.”
Except that it’s not. The song longs for a country without religion, borders, or private property. Lennon himself described it as “virtually the Communist Manifesto.”
Related: It’s Time To Stop the Playing of the Black National Anthem
Powell is not the only voice suggesting that the anthem should be replaced. In 2020, Jody Rosen of the Los Angeles Times openly questioned whether “The Star Spangled Banner” should be canceled and proposed a variety of alternatives, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” though she concluded it wasn’t modern enough. “God Bless America,” was deemed by Rosen to be too patriotic (I’m not kidding) and she suggested that Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me” was an appropriate replacement.
“The lyrics hold no pastoral images of fruited plains or oceans white with foam, no high-minded invocations of liberty or God. ‘Lean on Me’ is a deeply American song — but it’s not, explicitly at least, a song about America.”
Replacing our national anthem to kowtow to the woke mob is stupid. And it seems ridiculous to be lectured by unpatriotic leftists about a national anthem that is supposed to be a source of pride for the entire nation.
But, I digress. What I find fascinating about the issue of “controversial” national anthems is that this isn’t something unique to the United States.
In 2018, a line in Canada’s national anthem, “O Canada,” was officially altered to be gender-neutral, with “in all thy sons command” rewritten to “in all of us command.”
Oh, but that hasn’t stopped the tampering.
During Sunday’s NBA All-Star game in Salt Lake City, Utah, R&B singer Jully Black performed the Canadian national anthem — but changed the opening line of the anthem from “O’ Canada, our home and native land” to “O’ Canada, our home on native land.”
Her vocalization was not misheard, and it wasn’t an error. This was a deliberate change of the lyrics on her part. “I sang the facts. We are walking, breathing, living, experiencing life on native land. On Indigenous land,” she explained.
If you don’t like it, leave — that’s what I say. If you’re going to agree to perform your nation’s anthem, then do so because you stand for it, not because you’re using the opportunity as a platform for a political statement.
The woke mob may be a small minority, but they’re an influential minority that isn’t merely attacking national anthems. This is an assault on history, culture, and national identity. They will not stop until they erase our history and remake the nations of the world into their leftist utopias.