Racist conservatives forgot the NFL has been playing the Black National Anthem for four years

Conservatives are melting down over the fact that the NFL kickoff game played the Black National Anthem, even though it has been doing so for the past four years.

The football season kicked off with a match between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens. Unfortunately, it provided a dismal preview of all the “anti-woke” and misogynist complaints conservatives will be lodging for the entire football season. First, they started spiraling because Taylor Swift was at the game and did not sit with Donald Trump supporter Britanny Mahomes. Then, they began circulating #BoycottTheNFL because the Black National Anthem was played before the match along with the National Anthem. This was especially strange because conservatives were acting so hysterical over the Black National Anthem that one would have thought it was the first time the NFL ever did this.

Either conservatives just forgot that the NFL has been playing the Black National Anthem since 2020, or they just pretended to forget because they couldn’t bear to miss out on the opportunity to be racist.

Conservatives “boycott” the NFL for its four-year-old tradition

#BoycottTheNFL started trending on X over the Black National Anthem. Of course, none of them could articulate why the Black National Anthem makes them so angry. They simply started throwing around hysterical arguments of how it was “woke,” “erasing history,” and meant to create “racial segregation.” Many also spread false information that it was played in place of the National Anthem, even though both were played before the game.

Users who logged onto X this morning and saw conservative hysteria over the Black National Anthem likely had a strong feeling of déjà vu. Not only has the NFL been playing the Black National Anthem for four years, but conservatives already did the whole boycott thing over this before, too. Although it is often called the Black National Anthem, the song is actually a hymn penned by civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson. It’s titled “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and was first heard in 1900 when 500 schoolchildren sang it to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The song has become important to Black Americans, as it’s about rejoicing over their freedom while never forgetting their “dark past” and continuing to advocate and hope for greater liberty and equality.

The NFL debuted “Lift Every Voice and Sing” in 2020 after racism and police brutality were thrown into the spotlight by the murder of George Floyd. Since then, it has been played at the Super Bowl each year, with the organization also often playing it at the opening of the football season. Sure enough, conservatives lost it back then, too. Upon its debut, they made the same arguments about how it’s “woke” and an “agenda.” Just last year, when the Super Bowl played the song, right-wing pundit Benny Johnson was so enraged he went on a rant about how the song needed to be made illegal.

It’s weird how, every year, the conservatives act like the Black National Anthem is a whole new thing in the NFL and start losing their minds over it. Also, given that they’ve boycotted the NFL more than once over the Black National Anthem in the past four years, how exactly are they still watching it today? Needless to say, their latest “boycott” largely drew amusement, as we all know they’ll keep watching it anyway or never watched it in the first place and are just looking for reasons to throw a tantrum. It’s also hilarious that after four years, they still haven’t come up with a more original argument than the song being “woke.”

Everyone knows the NFL isn’t all that progressive. Playing the Black National Anthem is just one step in the right direction. However, too many people seem to forget that the organization was accused of blacklisting Colin Kaepernick for kneeling for the National Anthem in protest but has stepped back and allowed Harrison Butker to use his platform to spread misogyny and Aaron Rodgers to spread outlandish conspiracy theories. As usual, though, people are mad about the wrong things.