Conservative columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin seems to be raising a stink about the black national anthem. What led up to this latest dustup? According to Politics West, as Denver dignitaries gathered for Mayor John Hickenlooper’s State of the City address, City Council President Michael Hancock introduced singer Chanteuse René Marie to perform the national anthem. I guess the thing that stuck in the craw of Councilman Charlie Brown was the fact that she didn’t sing the national anthem. Instead, Marie performed the song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” which also is known as the “black national anthem.” When she finished, the proceedings moved forward, and few seemed to notice that the “Star-Spangled Banner” was never performed.
Brown getting his moment in the spotlight, took to local talk radio this afternoon to blast the lack of the nation’s anthem at the proceedings. “There’s no replacement for the national anthem,” Brown said. “They should have sung it.” “This is the State of the City address. It’s not an NAACP convention,” he said, referring to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Needless to say, the City Council has received numerous irate responses to Brown’s statements.
Brown said Hancock has told talk-radio stations that he only introduced the singer from prepared remarks handed to him and was unaware that she would not be perfo
rming the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Hancock did not immediately return a call seeking comment, nor did Hickenlooper or his staff. At first I thought that she had received permission to sing the song, but on further research, I discovered she deliberately decided to sing the proclaimed black anthem. According to the Denver Post, the singer explained she had decided months ago not to sing the “Star Spangled Banner” anymore. The Post reported she was being interviewed by a Russian broadcaster who asked her what it was like to be American.”And I realized I didn’t feel like an American, and that bothered me a great deal,” the singer said. She said she feels like a foreigner sometimes. The singer told the Post she deliberately didn’t tell anyone her plans, “because I don’t think it is necessary for an artist to ask permission to express themselves artistically.” So now we hear comments such as if there was a white national anthem, blacks would be upset. Hmm. Sticky situation, but the song is about freedom. Let’s not forget blacks were enslaved for eons and denigrated for years.
The anthem was written by James Johnson and first performed more than a century ago. It marked nearly four decades of freedom for blacks in America. It now still appears in some church hymnals.
Its lyrics:
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
To be fair, the singer should not have made the state of union address her personal platform and realize that was not the place for that song. Michelle Malkin is a little too self-righteous and critical to me. She is the same person who raised a stink about Rachael Ray’s scarf in a Dunkin Donuts online advertisement, which the company pulled after Malkin complained it was depicting terrorism. Yeah, she’s the same moron who was also caught up in the Michelle Obama “Baby Daddy” drama. Since when did Michelle Malkin become the moral authority for the right-wing? I think she’s forgetting that some of the same programs that benefited African Americans and women have also benefited her as a person of Asian-descent. I am sure the right-wing will somehow tie this to Barack Obama. Aren’t there more pressing issues for us to address? The bottom line is that we have only one national anthem and it should be treated as such. Just my thoughts, you be the judge….
Filed under: Black National Anthem, Michelle Malkin, Rachael Ray
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