SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The California NAACP is pushing to get rid of the national anthem that they’re calling racist and anti-black.

“This song is wrong; it shouldn’t have been there, we didn’t have it ’til 1931, so it won’t kill us if it goes away,” said the organization’s president Alice Huffman.

Colin Kaepernick started the NFL protests, which quickly spread to bring attention to systemic racial injustice in the country. But Huffman says Kaepernick’s message was lost when it turned into a debate about the flag.

“The message got distorted, the real intentions got overlooked, it became something that’s dividing us, and I’m looking for something to bring us back together,” she said.

Huffman adds that the protests did lead her to look at the lyrics of the “Star Spangled Banner” especially the parts of the anthem we don’t typically sing.

“It’s racist; it doesn’t represent our community, it’s anti-black,” she said.

Huffman is referring to the third stanza which includes the lyric “no refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”

THIRD STANZA (FULL LYRICS AT BOTTOM OF STORY)

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.

She says some interpretations conclude that the lyrics celebrate the deaths of black American slaves fighting for freedom, and the song should be replaced with something that supports all of our values.

“That’s an extreme way of doing things,” said Kenneth Lu, a veteran living in Davis.

The opinions varied at the VFW in West Sacramento.

“I believe it’s a slap across the face, whether there’s a flaw in the context, I don’t see it that way. I have to stick with our traditions and our values and what we represent,” said Sydney Lugo.

“It won’t solve any problem,” said veteran John Cox.

Huffman says it may not solve anything, but it’s a step towards social justice that she says is long overdue.

“This is not about the flag. We love the flag. This is about a song that should never have been the national anthem. This country is a country that has shared values, and the more we respect each other, the better off we’ll be as a country,” said Huffman.

A separate resolution by the California NAACP is calling on Congress to censure President Donald Trump for his remarks about firing those who don’t stand for the anthem. They are also asking NFL teams to let Kaepernick play again.

“He still has a lot of talent, and he has the right to play, why should he be persecuted over peaceful protest?”

The organization is still looking for legislative sponsors for these resolutions.

STAR-SPANGLED BANNER FULL LYRICS
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
‘Tis the star-spangled banner – O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Link

quote:

I’m looking for something to bring us back together

hmmm might be a better way

"She says some interpretations conclude that the lyrics celebrate the deaths of black American slaves fighting for freedom, "

Lady, some interpretations of your interpretation conclude that your faulty thought processes are the result of tertiary syphilis.

Proof that misery loves company. Now you are not satisfied abstaining from the pledge and anthem yourself, you want to prevent the rest of us from being patriotic. Okay, how about we replace the anthem with Ram Jam's Black Betty?

Bambalam!!!

quote:

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,

Now the way which I believe this was actually written was; "Their" was the British and hireling and slave were those same soldiers who were either hired by George or conscripted (enslaved) by him.

Too bad the NAACP is too self-centered to realize the world does revolve around them - then or now.

This is all decorative. They want the Constitution shredded.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

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,

Now the way which I believe this was actually written was; "Their" was the British and hireling and slave were those same soldiers who were either hired by George or conscripted (enslaved) by him.

Too bad the NAACP is too self-centered to realize the world does revolve around them - then or now.

That's my initial interpretation, assuming there were conscripts in the British military.

quote:

Originally posted by rusbro:

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

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,

Now the way which I believe this was actually written was; "Their" was the British and hireling and slave were those same soldiers who were either hired by George or conscripted (enslaved) by him.

Too bad the NAACP is too self-centered to realize the world does revolve around them - then or now.

That's my initial interpretation, assuming there were conscripts in the British military.

IIRC (I wasn’t actually there!) one of the causes was the impressment of American seamen into the British Navy, conscripts or slaves of a sort.

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
Proof that misery loves company. Now you are not satisfied abstaining from the pledge and anthem yourself, you want to prevent the rest of us from being patriotic. Okay, how about we replace the anthem with Ram Jam's Black Betty?

Bambalam!!!

Why, Hell yes!

Ram Jam
LYRICS
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Black Betty had a child (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone wild (Bam-ba-Lam)
She said, "I'm worryin' outta mind" (Bam-ba-Lam)
The damn thing gone blind (Bam-ba-Lam)
I said "Oh, Black Betty" (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Oh, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
She really gets me high (Bam-ba-Lam)
You know that's no lie (Bam-ba-Lam)
She's so rock steady (Bam-ba-Lam)
And she's always ready (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
She's from Birmingham (Bam-ba-Lam)
Way down in Alabam' (Bam-ba-Lam)
Well, she's shakin' that thing (Bam-ba-Lam)
Boy, she makes me sing (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-Lam)
Whoa, Black Betty
Bam-ba-lam

Man, that would get the Veterans rocking!

quote:

Originally posted by Ackks:
This is all decorative. They want the Constitution shredded.

One benign step at a time. First they must convince us to accept a lie or false principle.

Hmmm, if a "Slave" was Never brought here, we would probably never have a welfare state.

No one ever gets past the first stanza so forget about it, it isn't changing.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Hmmm, if a "Slave" was Never brought here, we would probably never have a welfare state.

And the flip side of that, which is never discussed, is the fact that without slavery most of the people complaing about the past would be squatting in a mud hut eating rice with their fingers and swatting flys in the heat.

quote:

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The California NAACP is pushing to get rid of....

Did anyone really need to read beyond that point to know this was going to be nothing more than an adventure in stupidity? Its California for god sake! If they ever did anything even remotely intelligent or appropriate it would shock me.

Hey Alice, the verdict is in....

Oh look, something else is racist.

quote:

Originally posted by downtownv:
Hmmm, if a "Slave" was Never brought here, we would probably never have a welfare state.

We probably wouldn't have hundred of murders a year in Chicago, either.

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
No one ever gets past the first stanza so forget about it, it isn't changing.

When I was attending AFROTC in college, we were required to learn the 4th verse (we called it the 2nd verse, though)--it is definitely worth knowing. I've not known of anyone else who ever sang the other 2 verses. (I'm not even sure that the "National Anthem" even includes more than the first verse of the poem.)

flashguy

It is my understanding that the verse in question, while a part of the poem, was not incorporated into the national anthem as it was considered to be too anti-British.

Just another liberal twit desperate for something new to be offended by.

isn't it easier to get rid of Huffman?

quote:

Originally posted by darthfuster:
One benign step at a time. First they must convince us to accept a lie or false principle.

It's at an accelerated rate now. In a few months we've gone from Civil War statues, to George Washington, and now the National Anthem. It won't be long before they say the Constitution is a racist document created by slave owners and it scares them to live under it. You know it's coming.