Conservatives are up in arms over the Black National Anthem being performed before Super Bowl LIX.
Ledisi was among the Grammy Award-winning New Orleans natives who performed national anthems at Super Bowl LIX in their hometown on Sunday. Decorated Grammy-winning artist Jon Batiste delivered a New Orleans-inspired rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” while Ledisi, accompanied by the Greater New Orleans High School Chorale Collective, powerfully performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the Black National Anthem.
Although it’s not the first time the Black National Anthem has been performed at the Super Bowl, its performance during Super Bowl LIX—coinciding with the opening weeks of another Donald Trump presidency—prompted swift criticism from conservative viewers.
The “Alternative News Source” Breaking 911 shared Ledisi’s performance on X and made a shady reference to the “white National Anthem” being performed after the Black National Anthem.
“This is a disgrace. There is only one national anthem—The Star-Spangled Banner,” one critic wrote in response.
“Black players make up 53% of the @NFL earning millions and millions to play a sport we were once banned from,” another critic wrote. “But sure, let’s have a separate #BlackNationalAnthem and pretend that we haven’t overcome. It’s tone-deaf. There’s only ONE national anthem.”
Another user claimed that “Black folks are AMERICANS” and “share the same national anthem as everyone else here.”
“I just don’t see the utility of continuing to split people up by race,” they wrote. “They didn’t start doing this before every Super Bowl until after the 2020 BLM stuff. What is the need? The Super Bowl should be a national unifying experience where we aren’t focused on race politics!”The inclusion of the Black National Anthem before the Super Bowl has sparked controversy among fans since the NFL introduced it at the end of the 2020 season. The criticism seemingly resurfaces when the NFL includes the Black National Anthem in the Super Bowl, which is watched by 100 million viewers.
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