How might performing one historical American song alongside the anthem somehow diminish the latter? Of course, it doesn’t. Moreover, Williams still performed the actual national anthem alongside “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a performance that was intended to honor Juneteenth and its recent mark as its own (very American) official federal holiday. If Williams had simply performed the song for the special, sans Twitter headline, no supposed dirtying of the sanctity of America’s founding mythos would have been detected, which is to say: there is nothing divisive being done in the first place. The more telling aspect of the incident was that the entire controversy hinged upon the semantics of a headline, when The Hill tweeted that Williams would be performing the “Black national anthem” for the special. The hubbub was, as with all disrespecting-the-flag-type outrage, faux-patriotism masking racism. Some ludicrously claimed that now every race would need their own anthem, and that Williams’s singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was somehow a tool of division and a sign of disrespect to the country. Alongside "The Star-Spangled Banner," the nation’s anthem, Williams also performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a historical hymn that is often referred to as the “Black national anthem.” Rather predictably, an online mob was stirred up. Over the weekend, singer and actress Vanessa Williams unwittingly stirred up controversy over her performance during PBS’s annual A Capital Fourth event celebrating Independence Day.
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