An op-ed piece published in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday suggested replacing the National Anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, with something else due to false claims that the anthem is racist, as reported by the Daily Caller.
The article’s author, Jody Rosen, cited no evidence to back up his claim that the National Anthem is racist, instead simply citing a video on social media created by the far-left publication The Root. In the video, they claim that the Star-Spangled Banner is “one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon.” Their only “proof” is that Francis Scott Key, the song’s author, was a slaveowner himself.
Rosen further claimed, without evidence, that the song itself is “charmless and difficult to sing…with words few people understand,” and “which fewer can sing.” Rosen then suggests that the replacement for the National Anthem should be “Lean On Me,” released in 1972 by black singer Bill Withers. Rosen falsely claimed that “Lean On Me” should be the replacement because it is supposedly the most sung song in America over the last half-century.
The far-left Cancel Culture mobs have already targeted Francis Scott Key in other ways, including most prominently tearing down a statue of Key in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in June. Many athletes who have pledged their support to the far-left and racist Black Lives Matter movement have kneeled or otherwise shown disrespect for the National Anthem at most sporting events in recent weeks.