(Headline USA) A Democratic congressman complained this week that the Super Bowl crowd didn’t stand for the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which has been dubbed the “black national anthem.”
“Very very few stood for ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’” tweeted Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. “The Negro National Anthem. Not a pretty picture of Super Bowl crowd.”
Very very few stood at Super Bowl for “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.
The Negro National Anthem.
Not a pretty picture of Super Bowl crowd.,— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) February 11, 2024
Grammy winner Andra Day performed the song before the Super Bowl LVIII game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, drawing cheers from the crowd.
This year marked the second time the song was performed in an official capacity. It was one of several politically divisive measures that the NFL undertook despite criticism that the league had gone “woke.”
Critics pointed out that the “Star-Spangled Banner” was intended as the anthem for all Americans and that it was, in fact, racist, to have a separate but equal “black” anthem.
Others noted the hypocrisy of expecting people to stand following years of controversy over allowing black activists like former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to kneel during the national anthem.
The issue has been one of particular contention when players who knelt for the national anthem then stood for the performance of “Lift Every Voice.”
Cohen defended his comments in replies to users who pointed out that Democrats encouraged Americans to kneel during the actual national anthem.
“I stand for both. And in Memphis, most do,” he insisted.
Another user criticized the decision to include the anthem in the Super Bowl pre-festivities, arguing there shouldn’t be a separate anthem just for one race.
“Well, I honor our national anthem and respect it as representing our country and in our pride in it,” Cohen replied. “However if you look at the history and some of the verbiage, it does relate to slavery and not in a questioning manner.”
The NAACP first began to promote “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the country’s “black national anthem” in 1917. Written by James Weldon Johnson, it was used as a civil rights rallying cry in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the organization.
Cohen has come under fire for his comments on race relations before. In 2013, for example, he claimed his black constituents see him as another black man.
“He goes, ‘Man, you’re black.’ And I took it was a compliment. I hear it in Memphis all the time. My constituents don’t look at me as a white person, they say, ‘You’re one of us,'” Cohen said at the time.
