I have previously said that I do not agree with the protests during the anthem. It has nothing to do with the merits of the underlying concerns over criminal justice in America. Rather, I view the anthem as the demonstration of our collective commitment to the Constitution and the values that it represents. We have not always lived up to those values but the anthem is to reaffirm both those values and honor all citizens (veteran and non-veterans alike) who have fought to make them a reality.
One of the most moving and heart-wrenching pictures in our history is the one above of Japanese-American children pledging allegiance to the flag despite being held in American concentration camps. With the support of the Supreme Court in its infamous Korematsu ruling, we denied the most basic rights to our fellow citizens in a racist program of internment. Nevertheless, those families remained true Americans and many would serve bravely fighting for the country imprisoning their families. Many would become our leaders in Congress. They understood that the values of the flag were unrealized and that we had failed to live up to our core beliefs. However, they fought to justice and to make this a better nation. They continued to recite that pledge until they could make those words true and real in their own lives.
Given the view, I obviously do not agree with the NAACP proposal. California NAACP president Alice Huffman insisted “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.” She also insists that the lyrics of the “Star Spangled Banner” is offensive: “It’s racist; it doesn’t represent our community, it’s anti-black.”
The racist allegation focuses on the third stanza:
THIRD STANZA (FULL LYRICS AT BOTTOM OF STORY)
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.
She says that the stanza celebrate the deaths of black American slaves fighting for freedom,
Ironically, I have never been a fan of the national anthem as a song. I think other countries have songs that are easier to sing and more rousing. I like songs like “Oh Canada” that anyone can sing.
However, there has long been a debate as to the meaning of this stanza. Critics charge that Francis Scott Key was referring to the roughly 6,000 African Americans who fled to the British during the War of 1812. They had reason to do so since the British were promising freedom and it would not be another roughly 40 years for the United States to fight a war that freed the slaves.
However, many historians have argued that the terms hireling and slave were used regularly at the time to describe British soldiers, which included mercenaries.
There is an interesting fact that supports the critics on the possible meaning of the stanza. Key actually fought in a unit against black Colonial Marines and his unit was defeated. Nevertheless, the meaning remains uncertain.
My opposition to the NAACP proposal is not any preference for the song, but notion that the solution to end anthem protests is to eliminate the anthem. I have always been moved at sporting events for my kids as everyone stands for the anthem, often played or sung by kids on the team. It is a feeling of shared values and purpose that I believe we need now more than ever.
What do you think?
STAR-SPANGLED BANNER FULL LYRICS
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
‘Tis the star-spangled banner – O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!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.O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.