Sports journalist and writer Jemele Hill declared recently that sports should absolutely nix the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” ahead of games because the practice has merely become an “empty gesture of patriotism.”
Hill also insisted that the national anthem and the American flag have both been “weaponized” against U.S. citizens in order to “undermine and diminish the humanity of black and brown Americans.”
In an article for the Atlantic titled “The Problem with Mandatory Patriotism in Sports,” Hill wrote, “Playing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at sporting events has become an empty gesture of patriotism — so empty that, when the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks quietly began skipping the ritual, 13 preseason and regular-season games passed before anyone noticed.”
Hill was referring to last week’s news that the Dallas Mavericks stopped playing the national anthem before games. – READ MORE
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