As a
Baltimore native, and having driven by Morgan State and Fort McHenry countless
times. I was shocked when I watched the documentary on the Star Spangled
Banner. This video that was made by a Morgan State professor and some of her
students was eye opening and very alarming. In lower school, I distinctly remember
my 4th grade history class and more specifically, the short unit
that we did on Maryland and the great significance of Baltimore. It seems like
every other year we would have a field trip down into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
to go and learn about how historically significant that I called home.
Until now,
I had no idea about the true significance behind that Star Spangled Banner that
has gotten so much publicity recently. From
a college point of view, high school history left out a lot of gaps about the true
origins of our nation. I had known that some of the slaves in America had
joined the British army in order to secure their freedom through the proclamation
by the British general with the name of Alexander Cochrane, however, I was not
aware that thousands of them joined the British Army. Just as the Americans
were fighting for their freedom against the British, simultaneously, the slaves
were fighting for theirs.
When all
sports teams stand to sing the national anthem, every single time, a large chunk of the song is left out. In the 3rd
part of the song tells a tail of the slaves who ran away from the fight, and fled
the American side to go and fight for their own freedom. This brings up so many
questions. I thought I knew that story of Frances Scott Key, who was sitting
out in the Chesapeake Bay writing about the song of heroicness and love for the
nation, but I had no idea that he was also negatively talking about the small
portion of slaves who rightfully tried to fight for their freedom, and go
against America. How does this translate into todays society and our rendition
of The National Anthem? So many questions arise now about the importance, or
even its usage of Americas song.
Not only
was The Star Spangled Banner not written for the black community like the Constitution
of the United States, but it was meant to defile the African American community.
If this was common knowledge, then I think that many Americans would take
stronger actions to stop, or just simply kneel, when they heard The National
Anthem. Obviously this is a major problem in America, and would the easiest way
to solve this be changing our national anthem?
I defiantly believe that if the national anthem were to be changed much more people would need to be informed about the 3rd verse. Although the national anthem will likely not be changed in the near future, what should be focused on is the way in which people are using the National Anthem as a platform for protest. Clearly Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the anthem has sparked political debate and criticism. Although many this act to be disrespectful to veterans, it must be noted that his decision to kneel, as opposed to sit, was the result of a discussion with a retired Green Beret. In Kaepernick's case, he used dialogues regarding the National Anthem in order to find new ways to respectfully convey his message. Even if we cannot completely rid of the 3rd verse, or the entire anthem itself, it is important to observe the ways we can use the National Anthem to discuss how our society can move forward.
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