R Kelly Music & National Anthem

This is the one! This can be a response to many of the Ignant Racist comments.

Gwen Berry, who turned from flag, says she felt ‘set up’ by anthem playing at Olympic trials

The Political Agitator’s response: I get so damn sick of some folk trying to tell Black folk how they should treat the American Flag/Anthem. What in the hell happened to Freedom of Speech and Opinion? Oh some of us will exercise our rights legally. This is good to me! 

Hammer thrower Gwen Berry, who turned away from the American flag as the national anthem played as she stood on a podium during the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, said she felt blindsided by the timing of the song.

Berry placed third Saturday at the trials in Eugene, Oregon, earning a trip to the Tokyo Olympics next month.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" was played once a night at the trials, and it began as Berry was on the podium after receiving her bronze medal. The first- and second-place finishers, DeAnna Price and Brooke Andersen, stood on the top two steps of the podium.

“I feel like it was a set-up, and they did it on purpose,” Berry said of the timing of the anthem, according to The Associated Press. “I was pissed, to be honest.”

As the song played, Berry turned to face the stands, away from the flag, and eventually draped a black T-shirt that read “Activist, Athlete,” over her head.

Berry said she thought the song was going to play before the athletes took to the podium.

“They said they were going to play it before we walked out, then they played it when we were out there,” Berry said, according to the AP. “But I don’t really want to talk about the anthem because that’s not important. The anthem doesn’t speak for me. It never has.” (Read more)

11-year-old arrested after refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance – New York Post

An 11-year-old student was arrested after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and allegedly telling a teacher that “the flag is racist and the national anthem is offensive to black people,” according to reports.

The boy, a student at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, Fla., was charged with disrupting a school function and resisting arrest without violence for the Feb. 4 outburst, according to Bay News 9.

He was also issued a three-day suspension.

His mother, Dhakira Talbot, said officials took things too far by arresting her son, who she said is in gifted classes and has been bullied in the past.

“My son has never been through anything like this. I feel like this should’ve been handled differently,” she said. “If any disciplinary action should’ve been taken, it should’ve been with the school. He shouldn’t have been arrested.”

The classroom kerfuffle happened when a substitute teacher, Ana Alvarez, ordered the boy to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. (Read more)

NFL players hit back over anthem policy — get ready for another political football season

In May, NFL team owners agreed on a new policy to fine teams next season if their players do not stand during the national anthem. The move took many by surprise and was seen as a victory for President Trump, who had spent more than a year publicly criticizing NFL players for kneeling, and the league for allowing them to kneel.

Now the NFL Players Association has filed an official grievance against the policy.

On Tuesday, the NFLPA filed a non-injury grievance on behalf of all players, and said in a statement, “This new policy, imposed by the NFL’s governing body without consultation with the NFLPA, is inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement and infringes on player rights.” (Read more)

LeBron: Trump is using sports to divide us – CNN

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(CNN)LeBron James thinks the President is using athletics, and athletes, to split up the country. And he’s rejecting the premise like an opponent’s ill-advised layup.

“What I’ve noticed over the past few months,” James shared with CNN’s Don Lemon during a sit-down interview on Monday. “(Is) he’s kinda used sports to kinda divide us, and that’s something that I can’t relate to.”

Referencing Colin Kaepernick, whose kneeling protests during the pre-game national anthem launched an NFL movement, and more recently, Stephen Curry, who honored his promise of skipping a visit to Donald Trump’s White House, James bemoaned a myriad of instances in which the President has twisted peaceful displays of dissent into an indictment of a decaying American value system. (Read more)

NY Giants co-owner on anthem protests: Trump ‘has no understanding of why they take a knee’–AOL

New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch will not punish his players for any anthem displays of protest and hopes that President Donald Trump will focus on other issues, he told The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday.

“Hopefully he’ll have much more going on that he’s going have to deal with and should deal with and must deal with than worrying about what NFL players do,” Tisch told The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday night at the premiere of The Equalizer 2. “He has no understanding of why they take a knee or why they’re protesting. When the new season starts, I hope his priorities are not criticizing the NFL and telling owners what to do and what not to do.”

His comments come during a week when issues surrounding the anthem have resurfaced in part due to a joint statement released by the NFL and NFPA Thursday. That statement included that there will be no new rules issued relating to the national anthem, and that none will be enforced over the “next several weeks” while they continue to have “confidential discussions.” (Read more)

Trump demands Roger Goodell ‘make a stand’ on players kneeling for anthem – The Hill

President Trump took aim at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday in a tweet, calling upon the football executive to further punish players who protest by kneeling during the national anthem.

The president wrote Friday that Goodell, noting his $40 million a year salary, must “make a stand” against mostly African-American NFL players who have protested police brutality and racism by taking a knee during the National Anthem before games.

“The NFL National Anthem Debate is alive and well again – can’t believe it! Isn’t it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart? The $40,000,000 Commissioner must now make a stand. First time kneeling, out for game. Second time kneeling, out for season/no pay!” Trump wrote. (Read more)

KING: Why I’ll never stand again for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’

The Watch Dog response: So glad I can listen, read and comprehend for myself.

Now that I have learned the truth about our national anthem and its author, I’ll never stand up for it again.

First off, the song, which was originally written as a poem, didn’t become our national anthem until 1931 — which was 117 years after Key wrote it. Most of us have no true idea what in the hell we’ve been hearing or singing all these years, but as it turns out, Key’s full poem actually has a third stanza which few of us have ever heard. In it, he openly celebrates the murder of slaves. Yes, really.

It goes like this: (Read more)

Funny To Me Roseanne Barr Disrespecting The National Anthem

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PLEASE SHARE! Someone actually explained the National Anthem very well, and it will make you question everything

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What Would Happen If There Was No Anthem Before Sporting Events?

So what will happen if there was no anthem before sporting events? Absolutely nothing! The game will be played and the best team for the day will win. Fact!

Now Run & Tell That!

Shannon Sharpe: ‘If we are one nation, why are we treated so unequal?’ | UNDISPUTED

Fabuloustastic! Click on photo for video.

Star-Spangled Bigotry: The Hidden Racist History of the National Anthem – The Root

Americans generally get a failing grade when it comes to knowing our “patriotic songs.” I know more people who can recite “America, F–k Yeah” from Team America than “America the Beautiful.” “Yankee Doodle”? No one older than a fifth-grader in chorus class remembers the full song. “God Bless America”? More people know the Rev. Jeremiah Wright remix than the actual full lyrics of the song. Most black folks don’t even know “the black national anthem.” (There’s a great story about Bill Clinton being at an NAACP meeting where he was the only one who knew it past the first line. Bill Clinton: Woke in the ’90s.)

In the case of our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” perhaps not knowing the full lyrics is a good thing. It is one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon, and you would be wise to cut it from your Fourth of July playlist.

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” as most Americans know it, is only a couple of lines. In fact, if you look up the song on Google, only the most famous lyrics pop up on Page 1: (The Root)