By Wayne Allyn Root
The so-called “Black National Anthem” was sung at the Super Bowl on Sunday. I did NOT stand. Did you?
I find this disgraceful and disgusting. I find it racist. I find it divisive. I find it offensive and insulting.
Not because I’m white, but because I’m an American.
I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood in a majority-black town. I am Jewish. My neighbors were Italian Catholic and Irish Catholic.
At my high school on the Bronx borderline in Mt. Vernon, New York, almost everyone was black. I was the minority. I was bullied. I was attacked and beaten. But I never asked for an anthem to celebrate my minority status.
Why would we celebrate a national anthem for only one group? I thought we were all Americans. Should there be twenty national anthems before games? That would take an hour.
Why not a white national anthem? If you can have a black anthem, why not a white one? Why can’t I celebrate being white? Why is one racist and the other one is just fine and dandy?
Why not a Jewish national anthem? Blacks make up 12% of America. But Jews make up only 2%. Aren’t Jews even more of a “minority” than blacks? So, why shouldn’t our minority be celebrated too? Why does only one “minority” qualify?
Why not an Italian national anthem? Or Irish? Or Polish? Or Latino? Or gay? Or straight? Or trans?
How come only black Americans get to be celebrated. Man is that racist!
Here are a few more important questions…
When did USA become a “black nation?” Last I checked were just one nation under God. Doesn’t that nation already have a national anthem?
Do we live in “America?” Or has the name been changed to “black America?” Because if there is no country named “black America” why would there be an anthem just for “black America?” This makes no sense to me.
Would black Americans be offended if someone said that America is about 70% white, so therefore we all live in “white America.” I think they’d be pretty darn offended. I’m white and I’d be offended too. This isn’t “my America.” This isn’t “white America.” It belongs to all of us. We are all Americans. And there should be only one anthem that represents all of us.
It’s “one for all, and all for one.” Right?
Millions of Americans feel like the NFL just spit in our face. Yet no one in the mainstream media thinks this is a big story. That’s either bizarre, or racist.
If the argument is, “You don’t understand Wayne. Black America is different. They experienced unique persecution with racism and slavery. They deserve this.”
First of all, two wrongs don’t make a right. Blacks were treated badly. We all agree. Guess what? The NFL just treated everyone who isn’t black badly. The rest of us just experienced racism.
Secondly, the black experience was terrible, but it’s not unique. My Jewish people have experienced prejudice and hatred for thousands of years – including here in America. We have also been enslaved – by Romans and Egyptians.
But we have experienced something far worse than slavery – the Holocaust was about slavery, mass murder and the attempted extinction of our race.
So why isn’t there a “Jewish national anthem” played at football games? If you want to play that childish game, “our persecution was worse than your persecution.”
And our persecution was far more recent. The Holocaust was only about 80 years ago. Slavery in America ended almost 200 years ago.
More importantly, those days of racism and persecution for blacks are gone (thank God). But watching the nationwide protests since the Hamas mass murder of Jews in Israel… with protestors screaming death and genocide to Jews… it’s pretty clear the persecution of Jews is still very much alive.
But I don’t want a “Jewish anthem” before football games.
Why would anyone want to divide America like this? Is someone looking to start a new civil war? There should not be a “black America” or a “white America.” There is only America.
Most importantly, why would any CEO want to offend & anger a majority of his own customers? The majority of NFL fans are white. Does the NFL hate its own white fans?
Is the Commissioner/CEO of the NFL, Roger Goodell, self-hating? Is he filled with “white guilt?” Does he want to chase away all his fans who don’t happen to celebrate racism towards whites, and division of our country?
Because he’d be chasing away most of the NFL’s fans. And that would be dumb business, wouldn’t it?
I don’t see white America, or black America. I don’t see white football players, or black players. I see Americans. I see my brothers, my countrymen.
It’s time to retire the “black national anthem” at NFL games. Unless you want to divide America according to race, or religion, or tribes.
Is that what the NFL wants?
