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July 1, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
06:33
The National Anthem is Racist?
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Time Text
All right, Charles in Los Angeles.
Hello.
Yes, Dennis.
Well, it was up to me.
America the Beautiful would be our national anthem.
It's a great choice, but we have one.
But I think God Bless America is great.
America the Beautiful, I'm fine with either.
Yes.
Now, when we talk about Key, you know, one problem I have with the national anthem is the final line.
Atlanta the Free, Home of the Brave.
Well, you know, there was slavery going on back then.
The Braves, if you think about the Indian Braves, they were being wiped out.
So I had a problem with that last line.
Then you look at Francis Scott Key.
He was a slave owner.
He actually tried to hang abolitionists, people that were passing out literature about abolition.
He tried to get them found guilty in court and wanted to hang them.
Right, okay.
So, Charles, here's the issue.
If we are not to use the works of flawed men, or women, but it's mostly men, we will have nothing.
Literally nothing.
I know from the music of the flawed composers in their personal lives, or, you know, I always use the example of Wagner, who was a horrific racist who Hitler loved.
But I listen to his music, because the music is beautiful.
So, who will you ever use?
I mean, this is...
Well, everybody's flawed, you know, to some extent.
Yes, exactly.
Right?
So, well, we got to look at the, you know, the question is, is it racist, right?
Yes.
And we know the man himself was.
Okay, I know.
And we know the man himself was racist, right?
Yes, right.
Yeah.
He noted that in the video that I just played for you.
He noted that.
He was a mixed bag.
He also protected a black guy from being lynched.
Yeah, he did at one point, but at the other point, he was thoroughly against abolitionists.
Yes, that's right.
Okay, none of this changes the question of whether the lyrics are racist.
Whether Francis Scott Key is racist is of no interest to me.
Of interest to me is whether or not what he wrote was, and there is no evidence to my mind to suggest that because the word slave is there, that it was racist.
I thought it was a completely effective answer to that question.
And by the way, it's not a stanza that anybody even knows about.
That's the problem.
The loss of the national anthem is greater...
Than the problems with the national anthem.
This is the song we have sung for, I don't know when it was adopted, but he wrote it, obviously, in 1812. And I thought the last point, when I got the chills, was good.
Those who declare the flag of the national anthem to be racist.
Would do well to remember that Martin Luther King Jr. and his supporters carried the American flag during their famous Selma march.
When they reached the statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama, they sang the Star-Spangled Banner.
Anyway, Martin Luther King is no longer cited.
He is way, way, way too liberal for the left.
He actually believed that the ideal is not to recognize race, but character.
Anyway, thank you, Charles, for calling.
Really?
It wasn't formally designated until 1916. It was written in 1812. How interesting.
A hundred years later.
First published in 1814. Sean in New York City, hello.
It has been such a long time since I've spoken with you, Mr. Prager.
You know, just the other day, I said to my Sean, what's with Sean in New York?
So, Mr. Prager, I'm sure you know about Starbucks being enemy territory for conservatives.
I don't, actually.
I'm not kidding.
I didn't know that.
I assume every corporation is enemy territory.
I'm about to give you a true story.
So the other day, I walk into Starbucks, and I've noticed this a couple of times at various Starbucks in the metro area.
If you look at their front window, they'll have a LGBTQ flag, and it's a little bit altered now.
It's not just a rainbow flag.
It's got something on the top, like a little V-shaped design, and it's a brown color, and I presume it's the ad for people of color.
I have no problem with that, per se.
You know, you're entitled to put up whatever you want, as long as it's not a Nazi flag in my book.
So, that having been said, I know a couple of the baristas there, and I said, you know what, I bet you that on the 4th of July, the American flag does not go up in the window.
And as a matter of fact, all the baristas had these masks on, and it had the LGBTQ flag on their mask.
I said, and you won't be wearing a mask with an American flag on it either.
And this young lady chimes in.
She wasn't part of the conversation.
And she says, that's because, you know, she's pointing to her skin.
She says, that's because we're victims.
She was black.
And I said, I don't see a victim here.
You're in Starbucks.
How can you afford to buy a Starbucks coffee if you're a victim?
So it was back and forth.
And out come the expletives.
And I was being very civil.
Really?
She started cursing you?
She started cursing me.
And she said...
She said, oh, you know, I can't believe that a grown man like you is thinking this way and talking this way.
And I said, you know, my dear, Marxism has been tried several times and it has failed everywhere.
I said, oh, it's not going to be like that this time.
Oh, it's so interesting.
Hey, Sean, you've got to get this stuff on video.
Actually, I almost risked my life, so let me cut to the punchline here.
So I said, let me get this straight.
In your infinite experience as a 19-year-old, you're going to tell me as a 50-year-old, my wife having been from the former Soviet Union, you're going to tell me about socialism?
Good.
All right, I've got to let you go.
Thank you.
That's a great question.
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