This is such a non-thing that it hurts to even consider how stupid it is.
But, let’s consider:
The Super Bowl is a private corporate event; any song may be performed ceremoniously. That’s protected speech.
Not standing up for the Black National Anthem is whatever. That’s protected speech.
The Black National Anthem is a colloquial title and has no legal status. That’s protected speech.
While there is a statute outlying etiquette for performances of the National Anthem, there are no penalties for not adhering. That’s protected speech.
“America the Beautiful” was also performed and there’s no legal basis for etiquette or participation. This song also has a long history of being performed alongside the Star-Spangled Banner to the point that it’s sometimes referred to as the National Hymn, even though that is a colloquial and non-legal designation. That’s protected speech.
This is apparently the fourth year that “Lift Every Voice and Sing” has been performed at the Super Bowl. That’s protected speech.
The larger context of why anyone is talking about what is sung at the Super Bowl should have been enough of a set up, but apparently not.
This entire stunt is predicated on the right’s frustration that they couldn’t do anything about black athletes and allies being disrespectful during the National Anthem (a legally defined song with etiquette spelled out in the US legal code), which is protected speech.
Now, in my opinion, they have a Super Bowl to posture about eight months before a presidential election. They want sound bites and over-the-top reactions so that they can paint themselves the victims of a hypocritical, leftist, anti-freedom conspiratorial media machine. This part of that “projection” plank in the modern GOP.
My original post was simply outlining that no matter how you slice it, there is nothing to be mad about them “protesting” the Black National Anthem. I added in a rhetorical refrain to drive home the point while beating a dead horse for effect.
Why can't people be pissed off with what a private company does? Like if there is a sweet company that makes blueberry flavour and it's the best. If they stop selling it then I can be pissed. The argument "well it's a private company it can do what it wants" is in no way related to if I get to be pissed at it.
They have freedom to do as they please, but whining about it does about as much as whining about blueberry flavor.
We aren't saying you can't be pissed, we are saying it is completely stupid that you are pissed and there is nothing you can do. There are far more things to be worried about in this country. We are eating ourselves alive, life expectancy is dropping, suicide rate and overdose rate is climbing, our jobs are being given to foreign countries and robots, no one owns anything anymore.
I'm starting to believe people whine about these pointless things in order to avoid confronting the more complicated and deeply rooted issues we have.
Well, you can choose the things you care about. Why waste your energy getting upset about something that has zero negative consequences in your life when you could be doing something productive, <s> like arguing on Lemmy? </s>
My favorite part was how they kept mentioning the sign language interpreters and then never showing them again. Like, give them a picture-in-picture or something. Otherwise, what's the point?
We switched to closed captions over the course of the 90s. Irl events still use terps but using then on screen is now a specific choice. Usually the only times you’ll see ASL on screen these days is presidential addresses and shows that make a point to cast signers for Deaf characters
Just like their bigoted positions on LGBTQ+ rights. Like, nobody is forcing you to identify as one. It's literally as respecting someone to be called John instead of Johnathan.
Bruh I got into such an intense argument with my parents because I defended the BLM protests. They came at me hardcore for "violence" and "destruction of property". I asked them what the hell protestors were supposed to do to draw attention to their cause, and they told me that they would have respected a "peaceful protest".
I then pointed out the fact that Colin Kaepernick's career still hasn't recovered, and that they themselves haven't watched an NFL game since then...so no, they wouldn't. My dad then of course whipped out his favorite "insult": "Fucking Liberal", and then proceeded to tell me that I have no respect for the flag.
The inability for them to think critically is absolutely astounding.
FUCK MAGA. Every single one of them can fuck right off. They are babies, snowflakes, mouth breathing morons. They can't think for themselves, they have to be told how to feel. I wish these lemmings would walk out into the ocean and feed the sharks.
Megg Mogg and Owl by Simon Hansellman. I think that panel is from the covid comics they made for Instagram but I don't really remember. That series was called Crisis Zone.
I first heard Lift Every Voice and Sing in high school (which was back in the 90s, I'm old) and I liked it, much better than the official national anthem. It acknowledges the atrocities of the past while being hopeful of the future instead of the usual "rah rah our country is the greatest" crap.
Former Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake responded to a picture showing her sitting down during a performance of the hymn at last year's Super Bowl. Lake said on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday: "I'm STILL not standing for this divisive garbage. One nation. One anthem."
If she really thought that she'd stand the fuck up.
Explain to them that the American national anthem doesn't represent black Americans because when that song was written black Americans were not free. The American national anthem was a lie then and is a lie now. Land of the free? Back then we had millions of slaves. And now we have millions of slaves.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
It’s not just that. Look up the subsequent verses of the Star Spangled Banner.
It’s about rounding up “fugitive” runaway slaves. It’s why no one discusses the latter verses.
This is factually incorrect. The Star-Spangled Banner is about the War of 1812. The first stanza actually ends on a question, which is answered in the second stanza. I actually really like the first two stanzas together. The poetry in the second is beautiful.
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
The only stanza that mentions slaves is the third. It says:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Here the “band who so vauntingly swore” is referring to the British. The “Hireling” refers to Hessian mercenaries hired by the British, and “slave” refers to American slaves who (justifiably) defected to fight for the British, having been offered their freedom in exchange. When the British fled they abandoned those slaves and mercenaries to “the terror of flight and the gloom of the grave.” Problematic certainly, but not about rounding up runaway slaves.
Finally we get the fourth stanza:
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The person who wrote the anthem, Francis Scott Key, was indeed a slave owner, but was a complicated individual. He spoke out against slavery, and actually gave free legal representation to some slaves seeking freedom. That said, he also represented some owners of runaway slaves. Like I said, complicated individual (as are many people who live in times with ethics we rightly find abhorrent).
I bet none of these dingbats complained when we were playing "God Bless America" everywhere after 9/11. MAGA shouldn't be the gatekeepers of patriotism.
They aren't. They think they are patriots, but in fact they are just nationalists. Nationalism is a gross perversion of patriotism. Under the guise of loving their country, it really just stands for hating everyone else.
The song is awesome, and honestly I think it's amazing that something as public as the Super Bowl is using their platform to give it a voice, but the name is unfortunately divisive.
They sung it before the anthem. It might have been after Post Malone did America the Beautiful. So it's not even like Lift Every Voice was the only additional patriotic song they did.
It's literally just a way for the NFL to fill air time before the game starts and get people tuned in longer for commercials.
It's nice for Lift Every Voice to have been sung, but if anyone thinks the NFL gives a shit more than selling ad time and tickets, they're lost in the sauce.
It's not worth getting upset over one way or the other.
I’m all riled up because I never knew there was something referred to as a “black national anthem”. I don’t pay much attention to popular culture, but something like this could actually have meaning to some people, so I wish I knew about it
The really funny thing about this article and about the comments is that some asshole wrote “sends MAGA into meltdown” trying to equate just a few people’s opinion as that of an entire “movement’s” (if you could even call it a movement, I think the term MAGA shouldn’t even refer to any group of people - it’s simply an expression that people can have without referring to anything else at all. But whatever) opinion. That not just wrong, it’s incredibly lazy opinion writing under the guise of journalism. To read that and not just ignore it does not applaude one’s judgement when it comes to information that needs to be shared. This is made worse by taking it seriously and then reflecting its lazy judgement towards a large portion of the population and further claiming that they are racists.
Believing in a false claim of a meltdown, then arguing its validity AND throwing in racism is so absurd in its duplicity, that’s it comes across like a claim that a 6th grader might make. And that is a serious take. Anyone with any reasonable adult intelligence should be able to critically judge what is written as news these days, but that, unfortunately does not seem to be the case.
I would be upset if I gave a fuck about a sport that's just a bunch of violent, wife beating fleons lecturing me on what a piece of shit they think I am.