The National Anthem

TRIGGER WARNINGS:  In which I say The Star Spangled Banner is not racist.

For John, BLUF:  We need a new National Anthem, but not for the reasons put forward by the California NAACP.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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IS THE NATIONAL ANTHEM RACIST?

From The InstaPundit we go to John Hinderaker's Blog, Powerline.  Mr Himderaker posted his thoughts on the fitness of our National Anthem on 8 November 2017.

Which leads us to this item out of Sacramento, California:

Group Calling National Anthem Lyrics Racist, Anti-Black

By Reporter Shirin Rajaee, CBS News, on 7 November 2017.

Here is their report, in part:

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The California NAACP is pushing to get rid of the national anthem that they’re calling racist and anti-black.

“This song is wrong; it shouldn’t have been there, we didn’t have it ’til 1931, so it won’t kill us if it goes away,” said the organization’s president Alice Huffman.

Colin Kaepernick started the NFL protests, which quickly spread to bring attention to systemic racial injustice in the country.  But Huffman says Kaepernick’s message was lost when it turned into a debate about the flag.

“The message got distorted, the real intentions got overlooked, it became something that’s dividing us, and I’m looking for something to bring us back together,” she said.

Huffman adds that the protests did lead her to look at the lyrics of the “Star Spangled Banner” especially the parts of the anthem we don’t typically sing.

“It’s racist; it doesn’t represent our community, it’s anti-black,” she said.

Huffman is referring to the third stanza which includes the lyric “no refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”

Here are the words to the supposedly offending Third Stanza:

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.

Frankly, I have no sympathy for Mr Colin Kaepernick, and his actions with regard to the National Anthem.  He made an error in judgement and doesn't know how to back down or his ego is so big he would drag the National Football League down with him in his stubbornness.

On the other hand, I would be more than willing to replace the current National Anthem.  It is hard to sing well, it is jingoistic and it is about a war with a country which is now our best friend on the other side of the pond, Great Britain.  Time to let it go.

Replacement?  How about America the Beautiful?

So, I disagree with both Ms Sarah Hoyt and Mr John Hinderaker, because I would replace the current National Anthem, and sort of disagree with Ms Alice Huffman, because she has a wrong, bogus, reason for replacing what should be replaced.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff