A movement to “boycott the NFL” started trending on social media not long after Tasha Cobbs Leonard sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens game on Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium.
Predictably. some fans watching the game at home were not pleased to have what is called the “black national anthem” played before the National Anthem. “Boycott the NFL” started trending on X, and journalist Jemele Hill responded to the movement by reminding viewers that the league has allowed the song to be played in pregames previously.
Jemele Hill responded to the “Boycott the NFL” movement
Hill wrote that “some white people” typically get angry when the song is played:
“So every year we just have to go through this thing where some white people get ridiculously angry upon discovering 1) that a Black national anthem exists 2) that the NFL has been playing it for years at the start of the season.”
A lack of curiosity?
Hill wrote that the movement to try and stop “Lift Every Voice and Sing” from being played shows a lack of curiosity, as black people have to know about white people:
“To be honest, all it does is highlight the lack of curiosity about us, in general. For Black people to navigate this world, we have to know about white people. They, however, never have to actually know anything about us or how our history is truly American history.”
Social media responds to Jemele Hill’s message
Many people were upset with the movement to boycott the league. Others disagreed with Hill’s point on learning about why “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written.
It’s really Marxism working in full display. Everyone is put in a group. Your financial class, race, gender, religion, food preferences, political affiliation, club, etc. Instead of a United States, you get a divided states because we no longer can coalesce around the same values
— Magicdeff (@Matthew17171972) September 6, 2024
Black happiness makes racists 😠 mad
— miles coleman (@milescoleman67) September 6, 2024
I am shocked that we are here because they said they were gonna stop watching in 2016. pic.twitter.com/A8TvommyVD
— Sheila Taylor Clark (@SoShaydee) September 6, 2024
It’s getting to the point where I think there isn’t enough education in the word, to break through to these people.
— Mike Harvey (@electMikeHarvey) September 6, 2024
Exactly; Black people know every type of white Person, because we had no choice. The majority of whites don’t want to know any about Black People.
— Trent (@trenttennis) September 6, 2024
Yeah, that’s I think the big dividing line. There are people in this world who are curious about others, willing to learn and begin to have empathy for people besides themselves. Then there are the people who look at someone different and go “That scares me” and they freak out
— NYT Opinions (@Lake_Of_Pain) September 6, 2024
Not only do they not know about us they don’t see us. If you don’t interact with them directly on a daily basis your just any face in the crowd…in the same building for years and they can’t pick you out of a lineup 🤷🏾♂️
— Newport Zeke (@newporthokie) September 7, 2024
My grandmother, who worked as a “domestic” for two white famines in Mississippi, always said this. Essentially, in order to make it in this world, we HAVE to know about white people but they don’t need to know anything about us.
— Travis T. Armstrong, Ed.D. (@TAStrong70) September 6, 2024
The fragility is exhausting.
— The North Remembers (@GhostofGarvey) September 6, 2024
The ones complaining the loudest are the same ones that won’t put away their confederate flags.
— Danny 🇺🇸 (@danzu72) September 6, 2024
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