Sheryl Lee Ralph – Lift Every Voice at 2023 Super Bowl – Getty
*Angry NFL fans directed their ire at the league for allowing Sheryl Lee Ralph, star of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” to perform the highly revered Black National Anthem before the Super Bowl 2023 kick-off on Sunday night, reports RadarOnline.com.
The Super Bowl has permitted the other singers to perform the Lift Every Voice and Sing hymn three times before without any faux outrage from the conservative right.
In fact, Alicia Keys sang the anthem in 2021, and in 2022, the vocal stylings of Mary Mary also dazzled the crowd with the melody, according to RadarOnline.com.
The anthem became official in 1917, appointed by the NAACP. James Weldon Johnson, a former NAACP leader, penned the song, according to The Daily Mail.
“123 years ago today, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was performed publicly for the 1st time,” Ralph tweeted on Sunday morning before the Super Bowl began. “Today I will sing it for the 1st time as part of the [Super Bowl] pre-game show in the stadium!”
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.@thesherylralph with an incredible rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”. #SBLVII pic.twitter.com/3iho2kTssr
— NFL (@NFL) February 12, 2023
However, critics emerged and quickly denounced the uplifting song of praise, “The Black National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner. The White National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner. The Mixed National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner,” wrote Florida GOP politician Lavern Spicer. “If you live in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, your National Anthem is the Star Spangled Banner.”
“America only has ONE NATIONAL ANTHEM,” co-signed high school dropout GOP House Rep. Lauren Boebert. “Why is the NFL trying to divide us by playing multiple?”
“Do football, not wokeness,” Boebert added.
Others countered the argument by stating the song acknowledges the oppression of Black Americans with aspirations of living in a better society.
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