An Indiana school district that told a black teenager to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a “traditional way” after receiving complaints about her performance is drawing questions now about whether the complaints and directive were racially motivated.
Let us say right up front that we don’t get it. Yeah, she added a few flourishes here and there that vary from the original, but jeez, we’ve heard a lot of singers do a lot worse things to the National Anthem. Roseanne Barr comes to mind.
Here’s the story from Yahoo News:
An Indiana school district that told a black teenager to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a “traditional way” after receiving complaints about her performance is drawing questions now about whether the complaints and directive were racially motivated.
Shai Warfield-Cross, 16, has performed the national anthem at sports events at Bloomington High School North over the last year without incident. But school officials said they received complaints about her performance during a game in Martinsville.
Principal Jeff Henderson told The Herald-Times in a statement that people had complained that while the words to the anthem were the same, the tune was unrecognizable. He declined to comment to The Associated Press.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KVQUjxrgrM
Here the part we really hate. Note that the first paragraph of the story pointed out that Shai is black. And this following paragraph will point out that the complaint came from a town that is “predominately white.”
Some who complained after the game in Martinsville – a predominantly white community about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis – also said they felt the rendition was disrespectful to current and former members of the military, Henderson said.
It doesn’t say that the complaint came from a white person. It doesn’t say that the complaint said that Shai’s rendition was “black.” In fact, there’s nothing in the story to suggest that the complaints had anything to do with race except that Shai is black and the complaint came from the ominously-categorized “predominately white” town.
Well, you know what that means. The complaint must be raaaacist!
Warfield-Cross’ family says athletics director Jen Hollars told the teen last Friday that she would not be allowed to sing the anthem unless she modified her version and sang in a more traditional way. Hollars declined to comment and referred questions to Henderson, who said school officials told Warfield-Cross the performances should be more “traditional” to ensure the song’s tune is recognizable.
Our take: Whoever complained is a horses’s ass. The principal is a horse’s ass. The athletic director is a horse’s ass. And whoever wrote Yahoo story and inserted the racial angle is a horse’s ass.
We’re also horses’ asses, but that a completely different story.
H/T: KimmyQueen