School-funded group shares video calling national anthem racist
Here we go again.
The increasingly hostile political discourse that has emerged over the past few years has made everything fair game for controversial partisanship. The national anthem is no different, as the culture war between President Trump and the NFL remains a topic of discussion. However, the mainstream position of the anthem protesters is that it is not the anthem itself that the players disagree with rather than it being a way to bring awareness to racial inequality.
Both sides can and have gone on all day about this issue, each all the while raising fair points. At least we can all agree the question arises with the application of ideals being practiced, and not the ideals themselves, right?
Wrong, and the Student Activities and Leadership Development (SALD) organization at the University of Cincinnati wants to make sure you know that the national anthem not only should be questioned, but immediately dismissed as racist.
On July 12, at around 5:00 p.m., the Facebook account of the University of Cincinnati Student Activities and Leadership Development shared a video from Root (an organization not affiliated with the University of Cincinnati) that explains how America’s national anthem is racist. Some may remember about two months ago the same university account shared an anti-Israel post just as the United States was set to open its embassy in Jerusalem—the capital of Israel.
The Cincinnati Republic reached out to the account to get a comment on this most recent post but has yet to receive one.
In the video shared by the account, the speaker points out that the national anthem we sing today was altered from the original text by omitting one stanza. This line referenced former slaves fighting for the British in the War of 1812. The video cited only the one long-since-omitted stanza, and Francis Scott Key’s status as a slaveholder as evidence the entire song is racist.
Once again, the main problem with this post is that an organization that is supposed to be promoting “student engagement, fostering a sense of community, providing opportunities of student growth and leadership development” at the University of Cincinnati is simply being used to promote partisan ideals and further a one-sided political agenda. SALD receives university funding and is not a political group, making it unjustifiable to share posts that are so obviously politically motivated.
The Facebook account of a non-political university group should not be sharing posts that are one-sided and political in nature.
As of the publishing of this article, the post has been deleted like the past posts were. But it raises the question: Why was it allowed to happen again?
Follow this author on Twitter: @KFairchild63
This article was originally published in The Cincinnati Republic, a conservative student newspaper affiliated with the Leadership Institute’s Campus Leadership Program. Its articles are republished here with permission.
Follow The Cincinnati Republic on Twitter: @CincyRepublic
