Lift Every Voice and Sing is the informal black national anthem, and the National Football League has announced it will play both the national anthem and the black national anthem before the Week 1 games. Not surprisingly, news companies and internet posts have reported both support and opposition to the National Football League’s decision. The league justifies the song as one of inspiration and unity. The National Football League has also shown support for Black Lives Matter in an effort to support inclusiveness.
As the National Football League is so supportive of unity, inclusiveness, and diversity, I applaud their sensitivity to the feelings of others. Therefore, I am sure it won’t be long before it will want to ensure that people other than blacks are not ignored. After all, fans are money and better television ratings. It’s best to keep everyone happy. I assume that the only reason that the league hasn’t moved forward with being more inclusive is that its research staff still needs more time to find the national anthems for Hispanics, Asians, Jews, American Indians, whites, Pacific Islanders, Australian aboriginals, Inuits, Saami, Middle-Easterners, and Hottentots. That is a lot of research and will take a lot of time.
Of course as the league contacts the other groups and finds the right anthem in the right key for each of the people groups, it can add them to a growing medley of anthems. Given that I have identified at least 11 people groups, the league could easily put together a program of anthems at the very least 33 minutes (three minutes per anthem) long when all is in place. All the music will provide new opportunities. The league will have more time to sell beer, sodas, caps, jerseys, sweatshirts, peanuts, and bobble-heads. The states and cities will collect more revenue. Even bookies and ticket scalpers would have more time to market their goods and services, which illustrates broad inclusivity. Creative people could find new niche markets (I have already developed a line of black-anthem-singing Biden bobble-heads.). Union musicians would have more chances to toot their horns. All that music could provide background music for those in parking lots bending over their barbeque grills and ice chests. It could evolve into one giant block party if done correctly. At the very least, it could be a gigantic sing along with a bouncing ball on the jumbotron.
While the league struggles to develop what I expect will be a music fest for our game day entertainment, I do have a suggestion. Until the league can find all the other national anthems for America’s diverse culture, it should represent all those people left outside the black national anthem under a common tune. It can’t be the United States of America’s national anthem. The fact blacks want their own personal anthem shows that the Star Spangled Banner no longer unites us. Besides that, it was written by a white man in the slave state of Maryland.
Perhaps the league could use Kumbaya as a common anthem. The fans could link arms, sway side to side, and sing Kumbaya as vendors sold more hot dogs and peanuts. Another choice for a common theme is the Communist movement’s Internationale; however, many in the Black Lives Matter movement would probably object. More likely, they would want to hold Internationale in reserve, and when they have better control of the government, they could tell the National Football League to make a substitution and replace Lift Every Voice and Sing with the Internationale. The Internationale better matches their preferred political system. To make it even more show quality, the anthem could be accompanied by cheer-leader squads marching around the stadium carrying hammers and sickles in skimpy red outfits. Smiling proletariats in red shirts with raised fists could crash through paper gates as song leaders–although capitalist team owners may not want to go that far.
If team owners reject either of the two proposed common tunes as representing non-blacks, selecting a suitable common tune gets tougher to tackle. Lift Every Voice and Sing at its most basic is really another scrimmage in the battle for the hearts and minds of America. So a common tune has to not only provide coverage that doesn’t sideline anyone but also speaks to where singing Lift Every Voice and Sing for one group of people only doesn’t. That song seeks to divide and conquer as planned by the likes of Black Lives Matter and other socialist forces. If we continue to divide this nation, it will no longer stand, and we will lose our freedom.
I recommend The Battle Cry of Freedom as a common tune for non-blacks to be played at football games. Ithas a relevant history that encompasses diversity. Asian, Hispanic, Native American, and white Union recruits sang it as they marched and died by the hundreds of thousands to free the slaves. (Black recruits also fought in the Union Army, but they already have their national anthem.) The song spoke beautifully about freedom, and it is a voice for equality: “We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true, and brave…and although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave.” The Battle Cry of Freedom should have been in the running, back when the powers that be were selecting a black national anthem.
Lastly, Lift Every Voice and Sing has a nickname, which is the black national anthem. The Battle Cry of Freedom should have a nickname, too. Developing a nickname for The Battle Cry of Freedom is a hard undertaking. Instead of representing one specific people group, it is too inclusive to give it a specific color name or a geographic moniker. It cannot be the white or brown national anthem as it includes people of various colors. It cannot be the European or Asian national anthem as it includes people from other land masses. Perhaps “inclusive national anthem” is the simplest and best. Then again, the “all other lives matter, too, anthem” would be a good choice. That nickname is a little long, but this nation still needs an umbrella anthem under which those left outside Lift Every Voice and Sing can huddle.