The NFL announced its pregame lineup for Super Bowl III earlier this week, but the league drew criticism over its intention to play the Black National Anthem before the game.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the Black National Anthem, has been played at every Super Bowl since Super Bowl LV and has sparked controversy on social media ever since. Earlier this year, the NFL announced that the song would be performed by Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Andra Day.
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Andra Day arrives at the 81st Golden Globe Awards Ceremony on January 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images)
Radio host Larry Elder was among those who spoke out.
“Sigh…by the way, how about the University of Michigan fight song?” he wrote to X.
“Brother, we are Americans. Why do we have to lift every voice and sing?” one NFL fan wrote in response to ESPN's Adam Schefter's post about the NFL's announcement: I wrote it like this.
Some wondered what would happen if Americans had a “white national anthem.” Nicole Hannah-Jones claimed that the United States already has a “white national anthem.”
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Andra Day at the Variety x Adobe Conversations held in Park City, Utah on January 19, 2024. (Casey Flannigan/Variety, via Getty Images)
“The white national anthem will be played. This song was written by a racist slaver who believed that black people were inferior and fought abolitionists in the courts,” she said. I wrote about Scott Key's The Star-Spangled Banner and pointed to a 2016 Smithsonian article. Composer.
“This song became our national anthem until the 1930s, in part because it contained racist lyrics. You shouldn't be constantly trying to complain about things and loudly boasting about your historical ignorance.”
The NFL began playing the Black national anthem in the 2020 season following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.The incident sparked a series of actions against racial injustice across the United States.
The NAACP began promoting “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the Negro national anthem in 1917.
The American flag is raised on the field as Sheila E. sings the national anthem before the game between the New England Patriots and Raiders at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on October 15, 2023. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Additionally, Reba McIntyre was chosen to sing the national anthem, and Post Malone was chosen to sing “America the Beautiful.”
