There has been a lot of talk about the American national anthem lately, especially since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand up for The Star-Spangled Banner.
Kaepernick said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”
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Now musician John Legend is railing against The Banner in support of Kaepernick, saying the song is “weak,” opting to use America the Beautiful as a replacement anthem.
He also retweeted The Intercept, a publication that promises “fearless, adversarial journalism,” which wrote in an article that the current U.S. anthem “celebrates the murder of African-Americans.”
Apparently there’s a whole other verse (usually unsung) to the song by Francis Scott Kelly:
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.
When he received backlash for his tweet, Legend didn’t back down.
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Some Twitter users responded with hateful remarks:
Kaepernick has still not stood during The Star-Spangled Banner since he sat before the game on August 26.
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