There is growing outrage over calls by activists, historians and journalists to replace The Star Spangled Banner as the national anthem because it was written by slave owner Francis Scott Key, and potentially replace it with John Lennon’s Imagine.
Historian Daniel E. Walker and activist and journalist Kevin Powell made the remarks in an article written by Yahoo Music Editor Lyndsey Parker titled ‘Why it might be time to finally replace The Star-Spangled Banner with a new national anthem’.
They say that because the song was written by Francis Scott Key, a white slave owner who made overtly racist remarks, it is no longer appropriate that lyrics he wrote should still be the national anthem given the ongoing cultural reckoning and recognizing of systemic racism in America.
Walker, who is also an author, said in the interview: ‘The 53-year-old in me says, we can’t change things that have existed forever.
‘But then there are these young people who say that America needs to live up to its real creed.
‘And so, I do side with the people who say that we should rethink this as the national anthem, because this is about the deep-seated legacy of slavery and white supremacy in America, where we do things over and over and over again that are a slap in the face of people of color and women.
‘We do it first because we knew what we were doing and we wanted to be sexist and racist. And now we do it under the guise of “legacy.”‘
The lyrics come from the 1814 poem Defence of Fort M’Henry which Key, the son of a prominent white family, wrote after watching British troops descent on Fort McHenry between September 13 and 14, 1814.
American troops defended Baltimore Harbor through the night and in the morning, Key was inspired by the sight of the American flag flying over the battlefield.
It became the national anthem in 1931.
Among the lyrics is: ‘No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
‘From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave.’
Historians have long disagreed over what Key meant.
Some say he inferred that slaves who had joined the British Colonial Marines deserved to die in the battle.
Others argue that he was referring to the British forces in their entirety.
Key made other, more racist remarks elsewhere.
Powell said in the Yahoo interview: ‘The Star-Spangled Banner was written by Francis Scott Key, who was literally born into a wealthy, slave-holding family in Maryland.
‘He was a very well-to-do lawyer in Washington, D.C., and eventually became very close to President Andrew Jackson, who was the Donald Trump of his time, which means that there was a lot of hate and violence and division.
‘At that time, there were attacks on Native Americans and Black folks — both free Black folks and folks who were slaves — and Francis Scott Key was very much a part of that.
‘He was also the brother-in-law of someone who became a Supreme Court justice, Roger Taney, who also had a very hardcore policy around slavery. And so, all of that is problematic. And the fact that Key, when he was a lawyer, also prosecuted abolitionists, both white and Black folks who wanted slavery to end, says that this is someone who really did not believe in freedom for all people.
‘And yet, we celebrate him with this national anthem, every time we sing it.
‘Francis Scott Key, he was a big-time guy in terms of the American colonization of society.
‘This was not just a person who just lived in the time period.
‘This is a person who helped define the time period.’
He and Walker are not the first to point attention towards Key and his role in history amid the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.
High school graduation singer Liana Morales refused to sing the song at her virtual graduation ceremony, choosing instead to sing Lift Every Voice and Sing instead.
A statue of Key in San Francisco has been toppled by protesters.
But critics leaped on calls to replace the national anthem, calling it a ‘stupid’ idea and claiming it amounted to ‘woke folk’ trying to ‘erase American History’.
Read the rest here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8460515/Historian-activists-claim-Star-Spangled-Banner-no-longer-national-anthem.html
And here it is again people. This will not stop until every aspect of American culture, history and identity and every American national with them is eradicated. A stop mist be put to this now. We are the militia, whatever type it may be. And it is time for our service.
OMFG! It just keeps getting more and more crazy. Jamal, thank you for your right on target comment. Changing the National Anthem to Lennon’s Imagine?! I’ve rewritten a few lines of that song that captures, in my opinion, what that song, and the people who are pushing for this song to replace our current National Anthem, are really all about:
“Imagine we’re all commies
Godless, landless peasant fu*ks
thinking world Government can save us
All I can say is brother good luck
Imagine all those honyocks
buying that bullsh!t
They may call themselves dreamers
but the nightmare’s just begun
I think it’s time we get off our asses
and meet this challenge with our guns!
All together now!
Excellent!!
The Commie f$&kers just won’t stop until everything about America is destroyed from within.
Everything about America is offensive to them. So how come we Americans don’t stand up and become offended by what the Commies find offensive?
Anytime an idiot tells me they’re offended by something whether it pertains to a politically correct idea or something else, I just reply, “well I’m offended that you’re offended.” They get all flustered and shut up because they don’t know what else to say because that’s all they’ve been trained to say by their Commie teachers. So they become like a computer having a meltdown. It’s kinda funny watching them squirm.
Next will be that they are offended by our flag and will want it changed to all Commie red colors. You know that’s what they are just dying to do.
And Americans will just passively continue without a fight, but hey at least we have guns that we’ll never use and will only use them as expensive paperweights.
It’s like we have all the weapons in the world but refuse to use them to protect ourselves and our country. I don’t get it.