It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and all eyeballs are on Glendale, Arizona for the matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. There are numerous compelling storylines with this season’s iteration of the biggest event in all of sports, but perhaps the biggest rests with the respective quarterbacks. It’s the first time in league history that two black quarterbacks have faced off in the Super Bowl. Bet you haven’t heard that angle this week.
Of course, it should just be a showdown between the two best teams left standing. However, in standard fashion, the NFL and mainstream media have to pounce on the opportunity to point out that the remaining signal callers happen to be black. Since the left can never miss an opportunity to virtue signal, the so-called ‘black national anthem” will be played for the third consecutive year prior to the game. Social media has not let the moment go without mention. Fox News reports:
The NFL’s pre-Super Bowl festivities will include a rendition of the Black national anthem for the third consecutive year. Even as the league had “Lift Every Voice and Sing” on the docket for weeks, the inclusion of the song stirred debate on social media.
Sheryl Lee Ralph, the star of the comedy series “Abbott Elementary,” will perform the song at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
Social media has been torn on the song and why the league feels the need to play it. We have Canadian NFL fans, why not play their anthem? The song is called the “black national anthem”, despite the song not actually being a song.
The “song” was actually a poem written in 1900 for a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. It was only set to music years later, and only in the last several years been recognized or played. It has been since the advent of social justice warriors and virtue signalers that most people, white or black even had any idea it existed. In an event that is supposed to be the biggest event in American sports, some question why the NFL feels the need to divide the country even further by playing it before the National Anthem. Lauren Boebert chimed in on Twitter:
America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM.
Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!?
Do football, not wokeness.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 12, 2023
Responses varied depending on which side of the aisle your affiliation lies on, but should that be the case? Aren’t we Americans, regardless of the pigmentation of our skin? Why attempt to divide an already hugely divided country even further? Fox continues:
The @NFL is making a huge mistake, in my humble opinion, by having "Lift Every Voice and Sing," what has traditionally been referred to as the "black national anthem," sung at the #SuperBowl. What more divisive message could be sent than to suggest we're a nation of two anthems.
— Darrell B. Harrison (@D_B_Harrison) February 9, 2023
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was played before Super Bowl LV and the draft in April 2021. Mary Mary sang it ahead of last year’s Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals.
The NFL started to play the Black national anthem in the 2020 season following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. The incident started a wave of actions against racial injustice across the U.S.
“Black National Anthem” is an oxymoron. We are ONE nation under God. If you think otherwise, you’re in support of segregation. It’s that simple.
— Xaviaer DuRousseau (@XAVIAERD) February 12, 2023
The very fact that we are still at this place as a nation is alarming. Much of the protesting and unrest following the death of George Floyd was for the supposed aim of social justice, yet here we are, more divided than ever with a mainstream media hell bent on making it worse. The NFL had a chance to unite people around one big game, with two black quarterbacks taking the biggest stage. We are one nation, with one anthem. Anything more than that is just an attempt to divide further.
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