Our Anthem
6th September 2016 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
The first thing I thought about when I heard about the controversy brewing over NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision not to stand during the national anthem was R & B singer Joe’s song “Our Anthem,” which combines lyrics from “The Star Spangled Banner” with “Lift Every Voice.”
In it Joe sings “See our stripes and our scars, our peril our fight, our young men behind bars, gunned down in the night. Is this red, white and blue or Black, brown and white? Ask yourself is it wrong or is it right?”
I gotta ask: Why are so many people getting bent out of shape because Kaepernick decided to take a seat during the National Anthem? Was it because he is a millionaire athlete who some believe has no reason to be angry and should shut up and play ball? I mean, he is a U.S. citizen who has the right to free speech and freedom of expression. It’s not like he screamed “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater or yelled “Give us free!” in a 19th century courtroom.
The brother simply had a moment of clarity about what is means to be Black in America for most people of African descent. The sobering reality is that most Black people in America can’t escape white supremacy or that grave, as the third stanza of “The Star Spangled Banner” reminds us.
Kaepernick was criticized by many of his peers, including Saints quarterback Drew Brees and former NFL great Jerry Rice, who said Kaepernick should “respect the flag.”
The same flag that was flying when many of our ancestors were bought and sold like cattle on the auction block. The same flag that was flying over the U. S. Capitol when we were declared “three-fifths human.”
And the same flag that was flying when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Black people had no rights that whites were bound by law to respect.
That flag continues to fly as the Supreme Court weakens the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, members of Congress disrespect President Barrack Obama and police across the country routinely murder unarmed and innocent Black and Brown people.
Is it any wonder that 19th Century freedom fighter Bishop Henry McNeal Turner stomped on the U. S. flag and called it a “contemptuous rag?” Everybody needs to take a deep breath and settle down.
Anyway, I got a few questions for y’all. Here we go:
• Isn’t it telling that many Americans get more upset about someone sitting down during the national anthem than they do about white-supremacist groups like the KKK burning crosses?
• When was the last time there was a gun buyback event in a white neighborhood?
• How many elected officials who organize and support gun buyback programs have taken a public stand against the NRA?
• With all of the satellites, surveillance cameras and wiretaps, why can’t the Feds ever catch major drug-and gun-traffickers?
• When have blue lives and white lives not mattered?
• What could be more disrespectful of the U.S. flag than displaying the Confederate battle flag?
• Why did the NOPD reject the idea of body cameras and a Civilian Oversight Committee when it was recommended by Community United for Change several years ago, but now act like it was the NOPD’s idea?
• Why is the Recovery School District acting like it is being magnanimous in relinquishing control of New Orleans schools when the RSD was created to be a temporary fix?
• With outspoken and fearless OPSB members being replaced by RSD backers and charter school advocates, who’s going to stand up for public school children?
• Who thinks the white business community’s stranglehold on OPSB contracts is going to be loosened by the dissolution of the Recovery School District?
• Why is it that we only need one hand to count the principled and fearless Black elected officials who are willing to stand up to protect the constitutional rights of Black people?
• Do you think the U. S. Dept. of Justice gives a hoot about the decades of prosecutorial misconduct committed by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office?
• How badly does the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office need a consent decree to bring it up to federal standards for constitutional policing?
• What do you think Native Americans think about the song “This Land Is Your Land?”
• Do you think Kaepernick is familiar with the story of former LSU and NBA great Mahmoud Abdul Rauf (formerly Chris Jackson)?
• What do you think of the growing number of military veterans who are supporting Kaepernick on Twitter?
• How many independent, African-centered institutions of higher learning can you name?
• When did securing and maintaining 501(c)3 funds become much more important to so many Black houses of worship than effecting positive change and meeting the needs of the people?
This article originally published in the September 5, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
