The NFL’s pre-Super Bowl festivities over the weekend included a performance of a song known colloquially as the “Black National Anthem,” stirring controversy and debate on social media and beyond.
Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” unofficially known as the Black National Anthem, ahead of Sunday night’s Super Bowl game at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
The song, written by NAACP leader James Weldon John in 1900, served as a rallying cry for black Americans during the civil rights era.
Ralph teased the performance in a post on Instagram before stepping onto the field.
“It is no coincidence that I will be singing the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing at the Super Bowl on the same date it was first publicly performed 123 years ago (February 12, 1900),” she said in the post.
“Happy Black History Month,” she added.
The performance marked the first time that the song was performed live on-field during the Super Bowl.
Ralph told ET that she was thrilled to be picked to sing the song, saying that it sent a political message.
“I thought what a wonderful honor it is for me to be here singing this song inside the arena with the NFL, making a huge gesture for diversity, inclusion, and the end of so many of these isms that people want to keep alive to divide us,” she told the outlet.
There were mixed reactions to the song, however, and while Ralph saw the performance as bridging divides, others saw it as sowing division.
‘Do Football, Not Wokeness’
Photos posted on social media showed former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake remaining seated for the Black National Anthem at the game.
Her campaign’s Twitter account, Kari Lake War Room, explained in a post: “Our girl is against the idea of a ‘black National Anthem’ for the same reason she’s against a ‘white National Anthem,’” namely that “she subscribes to the idea of ‘one Nation, under God.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) expressed a similar sentiment in a post on Twitter.
“America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM,” she wrote. “Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!? Do football, not wokeness.”
Bill Kristol, founder and director of the advocacy group Defending Democracy Together and an avid “never Trumper,” reacted to Boebert’s criticism by posting the lyrics to the song and encouraging her to “sing along.”
‘Uncomfortable With Blackness’?
Other left-leaning voices also took aim at criticism of the singing of the Black National Anthem.
“All of this ‘there’s only ONE national anthem! What is all this wokeness!?’” wrote pro-abortion activist and director of Politics and Government at the NGO Gen-Z for Change, Olivia Julianna, in a post on Twitter.
“Y’all are just too afraid to say what you really mean—which is that you just hate black people and you’re uncomfortable with blackness. It’s a beautiful and historically rich song. It should be sung,” she added.
Black conservatives who didn’t share the view that opposition to singing the Black National Anthem is rooted in racism also spoke out.
Xaviaer DuRousseau, a media personality and ex-BLM activist who once said he “shattered my own indoctrination and woke up from the Left’s lies,” took to Twitter to criticize the performance of the Black National Anthem at the game.
“‘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,” DuRousseau said in a post on Twitter.
Darrell B. Harrison, host of the “Just Thinking” podcast, took a similar view, saying in a post on Twitter, “What more divisive message could be sent than to suggest we’re a nation of two anthems.”
‘Antithetical’ to America
Benny Johnson, chief creative officer at conservative organization Turning Point USA and host of “The Benny Show,” objected to the performance of the Black National Anthem, arguing that it was divisive because it highlighted racial differences.
“Sports is woke culture and it’s really repugnant to me, and so I don’t follow sports super closely,” he said in a Feb. 13 episode of his show.
“That being said, I do watch the Super Bowl for cultural moments like the Black National Anthem being sung. How the hell is this even a thing? What a repugnant, degenerate thing to do, to split up a national anthem by race.”
Johnson said it’s “antithetical, of course, to America and should quite frankly be illegal.”
“You shouldn’t be able to do that. Is there a white national anthem? I’m not sure anyone would be very happy with that being sung,” he added.
“There shouldn’t be a black national anthem because America is a country that is founded upon all of us being created equal, regardless of the melanin amount in your skin or where your ancestors were raised,” he argued.
Johnson also praised Lake for refusing to stand for the Black National Anthem.
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I absolutely don’t recognize any other anthem other than the national anthem , period!
“America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM,” she wrote.
“Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple!? Do football, not wokeness.”
It is not only the Blacks.
To fully advance the Lying, Treasonous, Demonic, Woke, Socialist Democrat Party’s destructive beliefs and agendas is to divide our citizens with hate and promote: racism, open borders, radical feminism, abortion-on-demand, the LGBTQ lifestyle, unfettered sexual identity, transgender, same sex marriage, child indoctrination into sexual confusion and perversions, the pagan Liberal left Democrats must do away with GOD, our Constitution, common sense, morality, Christian values and free religious exercise altogether.
Under the of Disguise of Democrats versions of “anti-discrimination.”
get out of our country you degenerates because you ruin everything you touch.
I turned off the song mentioned in disgust. We are ONE NATION UNDER GOD – we are not 2 or 3 or whatever number. Either you sing the One or do your pathetic kneel down / sit down / silent protest. If you want your own country, go buy an island and leave ! Perhaps I could ask to do an anthem for Czech heritage – maybe “The Kolache Song”. Would be as appropriate. Nothing racist about – It’s simply should be ONE AMERICA and it seems some folks don’t see it that way and that’;s their mental disease.
Keep picking at the scab and expecting it to heal.
Well said. Some people just won’t let the past be the past.
Not only that, but isn’t it ironic that those very same people will tell us, on the right, when we say we want the America back that we once knew, that we’re living in the past and we want to re-enslave the black man, have all women be barefoot & pregnant, etc, are the same people who are perpetually living in the past?
The past is meant to be a teacher and guide. It shows us where we’ve been, and if we heed the lessons of the past, we’ll endeavor not to repeat the mistakes of the past, going forward.
Perhaps, if those folks still living in the past would see it in the proper light, we’d not be the divided and fractured nation we’re fast becoming, but if I believe they ever will, then I’d better re-evaluate whatever it is I’m smoking.
ITS honestly beyond them to EVER let it go..
until they can not profit from it it will never cease.
AND Until whites ,as a whole, STOP GIVING INTO Them, because they band around the race card, they WILL CONTINUE to play it.
What a bunch of ****. Black Miss America, Black National Anthem, Black reparations for slavery. This Country is being destroyed from within.
Steven,
Back in Jr High, I had a teacher who told me that America would never be destroyed from the outside, but rather, from within. I’m 60 years old now, so you know just how long ago that was.
At the time, what he said was very profound to my ears and mind and now, sadly, that truism he spoke, so many years ago, is becoming a reality.
Didn’t the Great Emancipator say, in the Gettysburg Address, “A nation divided against itself shall not long endure”?
It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that we fought a great civil war to end the scourge of slavery, and to reunite this great nation, only to see it dividing again. Will we humans ever learn?…
>> Back in Jr High, I had a teacher who told me that America would never be destroyed from the outside, but rather, from within <<
Borrowed from a guy named Nikita.
and yet, WITH ALL THAT, they still claim ‘Systemic racism and oppression.
First ,I took a knee !! Second United we stand, divided we fall. That only goes to divide us more. Third I’m not Uncomfortable with blackness I’m uncomfortable with your criminal activity. I’m Uncomfortable with your hate and disdain for this country.
Beautiful and historically rich song but no where near as historic as Battle Hymn of the Republic and Dixie. I am sick and tired of these whining black idiots. Don’t like it here? Go somewhere that your blackness is appreciated. How about Niger in Africa? They missed the spelling by one letter
There is only one National Anthem “The Star Spangled Banner”.
People of any ethnic group can have any song they want performed at any event they choose.
And they can stand if they desire but no one is obligated to do so.
I’m pleased that black NFL players have stopped kneeling during the anthem.
They are in the 1/10th of 100% of the most prosperous and privileged people on earth.
No nation on earth offers the opportunity for people of any race to live and prosper like the USA.
We live in the least racist country on earth.
Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! and Agreed! You’re spot-on on all points!
I was shocked so many AMERICANS flocked to this.. Especially with all the NFL has done CODDLING THE WOKISTS.
Do we really need a Black National Anthem? The whole thing reeks of Separate-But-Equal-ness. Didn’t they fight a Civil Rights Movement to get rid of that? But here we are, Black college graduations, Black Miss America contests, and a Black National Anthem. This is all the fault of Barack, Al, Jesse and the rest of the race baiters.
Not being white nor black only an American citizen, I have nothing but respect for all other “only an American citizen” but am fully against those that are in the category of “WS” and “N” two of the worst racist groups.
Billy Kristol never disappoints with his backward woke version of conservatism. Anyone who questions real Black love for our flag should stop listening to the Kapernicks and look up William Carney, a Civil War soldier, the first of 54 Black soldiers to receive a Medal of Honor, who, while wounded picked up the flag, got wounded twice, and proudly stated he never let it touch the ground. Shame on the dividers of today, Black and White, they are still carrying water for the Democratic Party who started the Civil War. The Hymn is lovely, but so is the Ava Maria, and neither is our National Anthem, and No, Billy, it’s people like you we fear.
I noticed that Hispanics outnumber blacks about 18% to 15%. How about that……
At the rate hispanics are crossing the border and blacks are killing each other that trend will continue.
Again, we are one nation. Please stop trying to divide it.
It seems to me that they want segregation but only on their terms.