Happy Thursday everyone! Today’s post comes to us from Mrs. P. Thank you, as always, ma’am.
No, this isn’t something new created by Black Lives Matter to further divide the country. This is the song entitled, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. The Black National (The Negro Anthem) is the nickname this poem turned song was given in 1919 by the NAACP. It started out as a birthday poem for President Abraham Lincoln. It is a part of the history of the GOP and yet too many either are unaware or ill informed about this song. In their unknowingness, many have called this song devise, excluding and wrong. Yet, they do not even know how it came to be.
Some on the right say idiotic things to jump on the bandwagon of labeling all things said by democrats as being wrong. Yet, unbeknownst to people like Charlie Kirk, there is a Black national anthem. It is just not as up to date as many other unifying songs about America seem to be. We came from a time in which Black people were pushed out of things and my people pushed back with things we called our own. As race relations got better, we didn’t go back and undo things created by Black America because we were left out.
This country is fighting for justice on two sides. One side wants bad cops held accountable when they do wrong things like shoot a sleeping victim or mistake identity and get someone killed. The other side wants to support our law enforcement members that often risk their lives and have done the right things. They want to “Back the Blue”. While these two sides bicker, the National Football League tried to cave to the BLM by replacing the American Anthem with the Black National Anthem. In doing so, they thought they could bridge the gap between those proud to be Black Americans and those wanting to kneel until police officers were held accountable. They were wrong. It is easy to tell with dismal NFL ratings and lost of revenue.
Trying to score political points, the left used the Black National Anthem as a rallying cry for those who’d rather kneel when they hear America’s. In doing so, the ignorance of the importance of the song and its historical significance to former President Lincoln was lost. Many felt excluded with the existence of the song. The nuance that was missed was the period in which the song was written and why it may instill hope in a people that have felt excluded even though the song was for a white man.
Below is the lyrics to the song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. As you read, notice there isn’t a call for a segregated America or racism towards whites. There are no lines of bigotry, prejudice or discrimination. Relax, white America. This song is not a rally cry to treat whites as our ancestors were treated in the past. The slights you feel today is because some of your own race have guilt and didn’t fight against a PC culture that told white people that white pride ALWAYS was bad and it isn’t. Black America’s takes pride in ourselves to restore the self image of a culture that is plagued with a history of looking down on ourselves.
One does not have to erase the past inorder to say the present is better. We have come a long way since 1919 but that does not mean we pretend history never happened. We often hear Never Forget for 9/11 and the Holecaust. If conservatives are ill informed about many parts of our American history, like the Black National Anthem, how can we say that we are making sure not to repeat the same horrors of the past? Yes, the Negro Anthem exists and just like blacks accept slavery happened, a few need to accept that black things exist too.
Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon
https://www.metrolyrics.com/lift-every-voice-and-sing-lyrics-james-weldon-johnson.html
