Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., got a case of the sads Sunday over what he thought was disrespect given to the performance of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the so-called "Negro National Anthem," while it was sung at Super Bowl LVIII Sunday.
"Very very few stood at Super Bowl for 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' 'The Negro National Anthem,'" the Tennessee Democrat said on X.
"Not a pretty picture of Super Bowl crowd."
Its very nickname, "Negro National Anthem," is contradictory.
A national anthem is supposed to represent the nation — everyone in the nation, not just some. And the idea of separateness was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), a landmark decision that segregated public services were per se unconstitutional as they violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The court rejected its earlier ruling in Plessey v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), that "separate but equal" facilities are permissible, and unanimously held instead that "separate . . . facilities are inherently unequal."
Of course a song, even one purporting to be a national anthem, isn’t the same as a public accommodation, but it’s one more thing that segregates us, that separates "Us" from "Them."
Political commentator Megyn Kelly emphasized the need for national unity in her criticism of the song’s performance at a national sporting event.
"The so-called Black National Anthem does not belong at the Super Bowl," she wrote. "We already have a National Anthem and it includes Everyone."
The Washington Examiner observed that Kelly received a lot of pushback for stating her opinion, much of it based on the fact that February has been designated as Black History Month, but in reality, the same argument applies to that.
It’s one more thing that segregates us.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., claimed he wouldn’t bother watching the game because "They’re desecrating America’s National Anthem by playing something called the 'Black National Anthem.'"
That earned a reply from Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y.
"The Black National Anthem — 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' — has been a part of our Nation’s history since the early 20th century," Torres said. “The erasure of African American history as American history is a form of racism that runs deep on the far right."
It was written as a hymn in 1900, and 19 years later the NAACP dubbed it the "Negro National Anthem."
It didn’t begin to creep into our sporting events until 2020, prompted more-than-likely by the social justice campaign waged following the death of George Floyd.
Newly-released evidence indicates that Floyd’s death, while he was restrained by Minneapolis police officers, was neither racially-related nor police brutality.
But the social justice campaign nonetheless marches on.
Many if not most social justice arguments are rooted in our early history of slavery.
But the United States began living up to its “all men are created equal” ideal by banning slavery 89 years after its founding in 1776.
Compare that to Saudi Arabia, which permitted slavery as recently as the early 1960s.
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in northwest Africa, didn’t officially ban slavery until 1981.
While slavery is now banned by law in every country globally, it nonetheless persists to this day, with an estimated 12 million to nearly 30 million slaves worldwide.
The People’s Republic of China enslaves their Uyghur population, but get a pass by the current president.
You can find a lot of things to criticize about Super Bowl LVIII, including Usher’s indecipherable half-time performance and Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce’s disrespectful screaming at Coach Andy Reid — but sitting through the "Black National Anthem" isn’t one of them.
If it’s true national unity Reps. Cohen and Torres want, every player on each team — Black and white — should sit the next time "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is performed at a game, then stand proudly with hand over heart during the "Star Spangled Banner."
It’s "e pluribus unum," — out of many, one.
That’s us — or at least it’s supposed to be. But we’ll never attain those ideals if we continue being "us versus them."
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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