{"id":265700,"date":"2016-09-05T11:06:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T11:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/troubling-origins-of-the-star-spangled-banner\/"},"modified":"2016-09-05T11:06:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-05T11:06:10","slug":"troubling-origins-of-the-star-spangled-banner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/troubling-origins-of-the-star-spangled-banner\/","title":{"rendered":"Troubling Origins of \u2018The Star-Spangled Banner\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refuses to stand for the national anthem in\u00a0protest against U.S. oppression of \u201cblack people and people of color,\u201d a concern underscored by the origins of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d writes Sam Husseini.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-20751\"\/>By Sam Husseini<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.accuracy.org\/release\/colin-kaepernick-and-racism-of-the-star-spangled-banner\/\"><u>several<\/u><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2016\/08\/28\/colin-kaepernick-is-righter-than-you-know-the-national-anthem-is-a-celebration-of-slavery\/\"><u>writers<\/u><\/a> have noted \u2014 before and after the furor surrounding quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner\u201d \u2014 the national anthem is racist. Specifically, the third stanza, which references the British offering freedom to African-American slaves who would join with them in the War of 1812, says:<\/p>\n<p><em>No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O\u2019er the land of the free and the home of the brave.<\/em> Even less well know, the song originates in slaveowner\u00a0Francis Scott Key\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.potw.org\/archive\/potw340.html\"><u>When the Warrior Returns<\/u><\/a>\u201d \u2014 which was set to the same tune. As Alex Cockburn, the deceased and much missed co-editor of <a href=\"http:\/\/counterpunch.org\/\"><u>CounterPunch<\/u><\/a>, noted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2009\/06\/05\/obama-in-cairo-high-words-low-truths\/\"><u>following President Obama\u2019s much celebrated 2009 address in Cairo<\/u><\/a>:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20753\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823-300x200.png\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-20753\" alt=\"San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823-160x107.png 160w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823.png 345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-20753\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823-300x200.png\" alt=\"San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823-160x107.png 160w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/24823.png 345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAn early version of the \u2018Star Spangled Banner\u2019 by Francis Scott Key, written in 1805 amid the routing of the Barbary states, offered a view of Islam markedly different from Obama\u2019s uplifting sentiments in Cairo:<\/p>\n<p><em>In conflict resistless each toil they endur\u2019d,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Till their foes shrunk dismay\u2019d from the war\u2019s desolation:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And pale beamed the Crescent, its splendor obscur\u2019d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>By the light of the star-bangled flag of our nation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Where each flaming star gleamed a meteor of war,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And the turban\u2019d head bowed to the terrible glare.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Then mixt with the olive the laurel shall wave<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And form a bright wreath for the brow of the brave.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 1814, Key rehabbed this doggerel into the Star Spangled Banner. So America\u2019s national anthem began as a gleeful tirade against the Mahommedans. And, of course, every member of the U.S. Marine Corps regularly bellows out the USMC anthem, beginning \u2018From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.\u2019 \u201cIn short, America\u2019s march to Empire was minted in the&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2016\/09\/04\/troubling-origins-of-the-star-spangled-banner\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refuses to stand for the national anthem in\u00a0protest against U.S. oppression of \u201cblack people and people of color,\u201d a concern underscored by the origins of \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d writes Sam Husseini. By Sam Husseini As several writers have noted \u2014 before and after the furor surrounding quarterback Colin Kaepernick [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-265700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}