Is America's national anthem racist?
I say yes, not for the content but the evil country it represents. America has done slavery, genocide, etc. etc.
36-40, F
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SparkleLeaf · 51-55, T
There are two verses in addition to the one that is sung at ball games. The third verse on its surface could be understood to be racist, as a threat against any black people who dared fight for their freedom, or it could mean something else. After a brief look at the writer and his views I must say yes, it is racist. Racism was sort of the order of the day but Key was a bit of a hardliner even for his time.
LordShadowfire · 46-50, M
@SparkleLeaf I mean, okay. It's hardcore nationalism, and words have meaning, but why not just dilute the word some more?
SparkleLeaf · 51-55, T
@LordShadowfire The actual verse is:
This is a clear reference to the Colonial Marines and their attempt to gain their freedom by helping the British. They had failed to take down Fort McHenry but succeeded in burning down the Whitehouse.
Key was a prosecutor in DC and advocated executing people for the "crime" of possessing abolitionist literature. Maybe he should have read the First Amendment instead of writing poems calling for hunting down and killing the Colonial Marines. He also went on record with a claim that black people were an "inferior race of people, which experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts the community.”
Nationalism and racism are not the same thing. However, they are hardly mutually exclusive. There is a lot of overlap. It is just as easy for a lyric to be both nationalistic and racist as it is for an object to be both big and bright. In no universe would one preclude the other.
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.
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.
This is a clear reference to the Colonial Marines and their attempt to gain their freedom by helping the British. They had failed to take down Fort McHenry but succeeded in burning down the Whitehouse.
Key was a prosecutor in DC and advocated executing people for the "crime" of possessing abolitionist literature. Maybe he should have read the First Amendment instead of writing poems calling for hunting down and killing the Colonial Marines. He also went on record with a claim that black people were an "inferior race of people, which experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts the community.”
Nationalism and racism are not the same thing. However, they are hardly mutually exclusive. There is a lot of overlap. It is just as easy for a lyric to be both nationalistic and racist as it is for an object to be both big and bright. In no universe would one preclude the other.
LordShadowfire · 46-50, M
@SparkleLeaf Key was absolutely a racist, but the Battle of Fort McHenry was between the Americans and the British. That makes it pure nationalism, unless you intend to argue that the British are a race.
Verse 3 is definitely racist, but the rest of it isn't.
Verse 3 is definitely racist, but the rest of it isn't.
SparkleLeaf · 51-55, T
@LordShadowfire So I'm wrong in saying that the third verse is racist precisely because the third verse is racist. Makes all the sense in the world.
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