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Post by kandace on May 18, 2024 22:05:31 GMT -5
After Complaints From People: A Pennsylvania school district’s decision to remove the NAACP anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” from a school’s concert has sparked concern from parents and community members. The song — written in 1900 by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson — was cut from the Spring Cove Middle School’s concert on Tuesday May, 7, according to Associated Press and The Altoona Mirror. n Blair County School District Superintendent Betsy Baker and middle school principal Amy Miller told The Altoona Mirror that they made the decision to cut the song a day before the concert after students expressed worry that it might cause controversy in the community due to its “divisiveness,” and after they received calls from other people on the issue.
“We wanted everyone to feel comfortable,” Baker told the outlet, so removing the song “would allow all the kids to participate.” “We can’t make everyone happy,” Wright added. “We have to do the balancing act between who supports it and who doesn’t support it, and our job is trying to find the balance between it.” However, some parents disagreed. Stephen Hershberger, whose son was set to perform in the concert, argued that if students did not feel comfortable singing the song, they should have been given the option not to participate. “Cutting the song just sends the message that a few individuals’ discomfort outweighs the perspective and care and concern of minority students and others who don’t have the same beliefs as them,” Hershberger told The Altoona Mirror.
“Being a minority student is already a daunting task, and dismissing the little representation that the minority students have in the school sort of reinforces the inherent racism in this country,” he added. m The Blair County NAACP, which represents the area where the school is located, said it would hold a formal investigation into the district’s decision to remove the song, per the AP. The Blair County NAACP and the Blair County School District did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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Post by pickle20 on May 19, 2024 5:55:59 GMT -5
I don't know why people are so scared of that song. It's a part of American history.
Just because it has its origins in African-American history, doesn't mean it can't be a song we all sing and revere.
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Post by msmaggie on May 19, 2024 6:11:50 GMT -5
People can be so small.
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Post by vosa on May 19, 2024 7:49:03 GMT -5
Obviously these 2 anthems are separate but equal and both should be played.
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Post by smokey1 on May 19, 2024 11:06:57 GMT -5
I don't know why people are so scared of that song. It's a part of American history. Just because it has its origins in African-American history, doesn't mean it can't be a song we all sing and revere. Are we one nation or many? Is the Mexican Anthem next? Separate multiple anthems promotes divisiveness.
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Post by mrsmlh on May 19, 2024 11:54:41 GMT -5
If it wasn't called the AA anthem, they wouldn't have a problem with it. Quite a bit of American music has its roots in AA history.
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Post by kandace on May 19, 2024 11:56:07 GMT -5
I don't know why people are so scared of that song. It's a part of American history. Just because it has its origins in African-American history, doesn't mean it can't be a song we all sing and revere. Are we one nation or many? Is the Mexican Anthem next? Separate multiple anthems promotes divisiveness. Racial divisiveness in the US of A has first and foremost been and is promoted by systemic racism and dehumanization of persons of African descent. The AA Anthem was created at the height of the American Jim Crow regime, and within living memory of African Chattel Slavery. It reflected the reality of the AA experience. Blaming an anthem for divisiveness is like blaming a weatherman for bad weather.
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Post by kandace on May 19, 2024 11:59:54 GMT -5
I don't know why people are so scared of that song. It's a part of American history. Just because it has its origins in African-American history, doesn't mean it can't be a song we all sing and revere. Having your children singing and revering a song that calls out your ancestors' role as oppressors is hard, at least for complaining parents.
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Post by kandace on May 19, 2024 12:17:57 GMT -5
Interesting facts about the Star-Spangled Banner, from ThoughtCo: "The Star Spangled Banner" was published in a number of newspapers at the time, but by the Civil War it had become one of the most popular patriotic songs of the United States. By the late 19th century, "The Star Spangled Banner" had become the official song of the U.S. military, but it wasn't until 1931 that the United States made "The Star Spangled Banner" the official national anthem of the country.
Interestingly, it was Robert L. Ripley of "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" that spurred the interest of the American people to demand "The Star Spangled Banner" to become the official national anthem. On November 3, 1929, Ripley ran a panel in his syndicated cartoon stating that "Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem." Americans were shocked and wrote five million letters to Congress demanding Congress proclaim a national anthem.
On March 3, 1931, U.S. President Herbert Hoover signed an act that officially made "The Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem for the United States. Before this time, the United States had been without any national anthem.
Also, from Snopes, interesting information about one of the stanzas of the Star-Spangled Banner: And where is that band who so vauntingly swore, That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion A home and a Country should leave us no more? Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
There are historians (notably Robin Blackburn, author of The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1848, and Alan Taylor, author of "American Blacks in the War of 1812"), who have indeed read the stanza as glorying in the Americans' defeat of the Corps of Colonial Marines, one of two units of black slaves recruited between 1808 and 1816 to fight for the British on the promise of gaining their freedom. Like so many of his compatriots, Francis Scott Key, the wealthy American lawyer who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" in the wake of the Battle of Fort McHenry on 14 September 1814, was a slaveholder who believed blacks to be "a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community." It goes without saying that Key did not have the enslaved black population of America in mind when he penned the words "land of the free." It would be logical to assume, as well, that he might have harbored a special resentment toward African Americans who fought against the United States on behalf of the King.
The reality is that there were human beings fighting for freedom with incredible bravery during the War of 1812. However, “The Star-Spangled Banner” glorifies America’s “triumph” over them — and then turns that reality completely upside down, transforming their killers into the courageous freedom fighters. After the U.S. and the British signed a peace treaty at the end of 1814, the U.S. government demanded the return of American “property,” which by that point numbered about 6,000 people. The British refused. Most of the 6,000 eventually settled in Canada, with some going to Trinidad, where their descendants are still known as “Merikins.”
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Post by vosa on May 19, 2024 12:25:49 GMT -5
Are we one nation or many? Is the Mexican Anthem next? Separate multiple anthems promotes divisiveness. Racial divisiveness in the US of A has first and foremost been and is promoted by systemic racism and dehumanization of persons of African descent. The AA Anthem was created at the height of the American Jim Crow regime, and within living memory of African Chattel Slavery. It reflected the reality of the AA experience. Blaming an anthem for divisiveness is like blaming a weatherman for bad weather. I asked you this question before and you didn't have the strength of character to answer. Let's see if you've changed since then. Do you encourage people of color to immigrate into the U.S.?
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Post by pickle20 on May 20, 2024 6:09:32 GMT -5
I don't know why people are so scared of that song. It's a part of American history. Just because it has its origins in African-American history, doesn't mean it can't be a song we all sing and revere. Are we one nation or many? Is the Mexican Anthem next? Separate multiple anthems promotes divisiveness. Aren't you a history buff? I'm surprised you're struggling to understand and appreciate the history behind this song. The song came from a time when Blacks didn't have equal rights and were discriminated against. So in many ways, the song was from a time when America was not one nation for all its people. Not to mention, you revere and fly the flags of a rebellion against the US to continue slavery and you want to talk about America being one nation? Wow, your cognitive dissonance and lack of self-awareness is stunning!
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Post by smokey1 on May 20, 2024 9:12:57 GMT -5
Are we one nation or many? Is the Mexican Anthem next? Separate multiple anthems promotes divisiveness. Aren't you a history buff? I'm surprised you're struggling to understand and appreciate the history behind this song. The song came from a time when Blacks didn't have equal rights and were discriminated against. So in many ways, the song was from a time when America was not one nation for all its people. Not to mention, you revere and fly the flags of a rebellion against the US to continue slavery and you want to talk about America being one nation? Wow, your cognitive dissonance and lack of self-awareness is stunning! You must still think it's 1860.
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Post by pickle20 on May 20, 2024 9:23:32 GMT -5
Aren't you a history buff? I'm surprised you're struggling to understand and appreciate the history behind this song. The song came from a time when Blacks didn't have equal rights and were discriminated against. So in many ways, the song was from a time when America was not one nation for all its people. Not to mention, you revere and fly the flags of a rebellion against the US to continue slavery and you want to talk about America being one nation? Wow, your cognitive dissonance and lack of self-awareness is stunning! You must still think it's 1860. Says the one who still flies their flags and reenacts their battles. I'm just saying, you're probably the last person on this forum who should be lecturing others about America being "one nation". You support the people who sought to turn it into two different nations and keep millions of people in chains.
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Post by smokey1 on May 20, 2024 11:26:53 GMT -5
You must still think it's 1860. Says the one who still flies their flags and reenacts their battles. I'm just saying, you're probably the last person on this forum who should be lecturing others about America being "one nation". You support the people who sought to turn it into two different nations and keep millions of people in chains. I don't even have a flagpole, what makes you think I fly any flag? How can anyone support something that happened 160 years ago? Time machine? I support the people of one nation being united and not divided. Secession to form another nation is a different thing entirely.
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Post by pickle20 on May 20, 2024 12:04:11 GMT -5
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Post by smokey1 on May 20, 2024 12:25:35 GMT -5
I don't have a regular flag pole but I do have a pole that I can insert on the side of the fence. I have flown flags on that pole including the Betsy Ross, Crossland Banner, Union Jack, and Bonnie Blue.
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Post by pickle20 on May 20, 2024 12:36:45 GMT -5
I don't have a regular flag pole but I do have a pole that I can insert on the side of the fence. I have flown flags on that pole including the Betsy Ross, Crossland Banner, Union Jack, and Bonnie Blue. You sound confused. LOL
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Post by smokey1 on May 20, 2024 13:01:58 GMT -5
I don't have a regular flag pole but I do have a pole that I can insert on the side of the fence. I have flown flags on that pole including the Betsy Ross, Crossland Banner, Union Jack, and Bonnie Blue. You sound confused. LOL How so? I asked what made you think I fly any flags and you answered. I rarely fly any flags but if for some reason I feel the need I can fly one off of my fence. Where's the confusion?
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Post by pickle20 on May 20, 2024 13:37:37 GMT -5
How so? I asked what made you think I fly any flags and you answered. I rarely fly any flags but if for some reason I feel the need I can fly one off of my fence. Where's the confusion? This is silly. You said you don't have a flag pole and inferred you don't fly any flags. When presented with previous posts about your flags now you do have a flag pole and you do fly them. But just from your fence. Your posts are again confusing, or you were just caught in a white lie.
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Post by smokey1 on May 20, 2024 13:49:58 GMT -5
How so? I asked what made you think I fly any flags and you answered. I rarely fly any flags but if for some reason I feel the need I can fly one off of my fence. Where's the confusion? This is silly. You said you don't have a flag pole and inferred you don't fly any flags. When presented with previous posts about your flags now you do have a flag pole and you do fly them. But just from your fence. Your posts are again confusing, or you were just caught in a white lie. How could it have been a lie? Did I say I didn't fly any flags at any time? No, you are just another poster trying to get a "gotcha". SMH
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Post by pickle20 on May 20, 2024 13:51:43 GMT -5
This is silly. You said you don't have a flag pole and inferred you don't fly any flags. When presented with previous posts about your flags now you do have a flag pole and you do fly them. But just from your fence. Your posts are again confusing, or you were just caught in a white lie. How could it have been a lie? Did I say I didn't fly any flags at any time? No, you are just another poster trying to get a "gotcha". SMH Well at best, another confusing, poorly written Smokey post. Do better man.
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Post by smokey1 on May 20, 2024 13:59:55 GMT -5
How could it have been a lie? Did I say I didn't fly any flags at any time? No, you are just another poster trying to get a "gotcha". SMH Well at best, another confusing, poorly written Smokey post. Do better man. Yeah, I'll try.
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Post by cowboyz on May 20, 2024 14:03:07 GMT -5
Maybe we need a new National Anthem that wasn't written during a time when it truly wasn't the "land of the free" because everyone wasn't free.
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Post by pickle20 on May 20, 2024 14:15:18 GMT -5
Maybe we need a new National Anthem that wasn't written during a time when it truly wasn't the "land of the free" because everyone wasn't free. America, F--- Yeah gets my vote.
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Post by alienrace on May 20, 2024 15:51:16 GMT -5
America, F--- Yeah gets my vote. Haha good one
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Post by vosa on May 20, 2024 18:58:28 GMT -5
Maybe we need a new National Anthem that wasn't written during a time when it truly wasn't the "land of the free" because everyone wasn't free. Maybe we need a new Declaration of Independence and a new Constitution and new 1st 12 Amendments to that Constitution. What else is there that came into existence before December 6, 1865 that we should get a new one of?
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Post by upstream on May 20, 2024 19:02:28 GMT -5
These people are idiots. I have no patience for this foolishness.
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