Newsmax, like most right-wing outlets, wasn’t thrilled about the singing of “Lift Every Voice And Sing” — also called the black national anthem — during the Super Bowl, though it wasn’t as unhinged about it as, say, WorldNetDaily was. A Jan. 20 article by NIck Koutsobinas noted the inclusion of the song, adding: “But the inclusion of the song has sparked varied reactions. Some view it as a positive step forward, while others, such as former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and conservative commentator Benny Johnson, see it as divisive or inappropriate.” Koutsobinas failed to identify Lake and Johnson as far-right activists.
Michael Dorstewitz ranted about the song in his Feb. 14 column:
A national anthem is supposed to represent the nation — everyone in the nation, not just some. And the idea of separateness was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), a landmark decision that segregated public services were per se unconstitutional as they violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The court rejected its earlier ruling in Plessey v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), that “separate but equal” facilities are permissible, and unanimously held instead that “separate . . . facilities are inherently unequal.”
Of course a song, even one purporting to be a national anthem, isn’t the same as a public accommodation, but it’s one more thing that segregates us, that separates “Us” from “Them.”
Political commentator Megyn Kelly emphasized the need for national unity in her criticism of the song’s performance at a national sporting event.
“The so-called Black National Anthem does not belong at the Super Bowl,” she wrote. “We already have a National Anthem and it includes Everyone.”
Dorstewitz and Kelly failed to understand that the nation — and, thus the national anthem — largely excluded black people for much of its history, making it perfectly understandable why they would seek their own song.
Dorsrtewitz further huffed:
It didn’t begin to creep into our sporting events until 2020, prompted more-than-likely by the social justice campaign waged following the death of George Floyd.
Newly-released evidence indicates that Floyd’s death, while he was restrained by Minneapolis police officers, was neither racially-related nor police brutality.
But the social justice campaign nonetheless marches on.
As evidence for this, Dorstewitz linked to a November column he wrote rehashing revisionist claims from a right-wing news site, which we debunked when WND columnist Jack Cashill spouted them.
Dorstewitz finally conceded that there’s nothing wrong with the song:
You can find a lot of things to criticize about Super Bowl LVIII, including Usher’s indecipherable half-time performance and Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce’s disrespectful screaming at Coach Andy Reid — but sitting through the “Black National Anthem” isn’t one of them.
If it’s true national unity Reps. Cohen and Torres want, every player on each team — Black and white — should sit the next time “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is performed at a game, then stand proudly with hand over heart during the “Star Spangled Banner.”
It’s “e pluribus unum,” — out of many, one.
That’s us — or at least it’s supposed to be. But we’ll never attain those ideals if we continue being “us versus them.”
Complaining about the song, however, doesn’t exactly demonstrate much unity on the part of Dorstewitz.