The Decider (Archive) - September 13, 2021
by, Abby Monteil
The View moderator Whoopi Goldberg had strong words for Bill Maher in today’s episode of the ABC talk show. While discussing a controversial Real Time with Bill Maher clip in which Maher criticized the existence of the US Black national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” she took him to task for writing off centuries of African American culture and activism as a byproduct of “woke culture.”
During a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the titular host condemned the NFL for playing two national anthems at the season kickoff game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys: The “official” US national anthem, and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (which was performed by Alicia Keys).
“I think we should have one national anthem,” Maher said. “I think when you go down a road where you’re having two different national anthems, colleges sometimes now have … many of them have different graduation ceremonies for Black and white, separate dorms — this is what I mean! Segregation! You’ve inverted the idea. We’re going back to that under a different name.”
To Goldberg, this logic is the result American culture going backwards “a good 10, 15 years.”
“We’re having to reeducate people on how everyone wants to be talked about. These were all things that I thought we’d worked on together,” she said. “Just so you know, Bill, Lift Every Voice has always been considered the Black anthem. Maybe other people don’t know that. We don’t think rape humor is funny. It’s not funny!”
Co-hosts Sara Haines and Joy Behar echoed Goldberg’s statements, pointing out that the national anthem wasn’t written with all Americans in mind — in fact, writer Francis Scott Key owned slaves.
Guest host and conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham argued that many Americans feel passionate about the national anthem “because it stood for all of us in those rare moments when we were truly unified,” and because it honors millions of Americans who died for their country.
“My father, my grandfather fought in all of those wars. Couldn’t vote, but fought in all of these wars. We’ve been fighting to be seen as equal,” Goldberg responded.
“You cannot say this is happening because people are woke. I’ve never been asleep,” she continued. “In the culture that I’ve seen, we are fighting because there’s a big gap. Not just us, Native Americans, all the ‘other’ we’ve been talking about. America, get it together! We already dealt with this.”
by, Abby Monteil
The View moderator Whoopi Goldberg had strong words for Bill Maher in today’s episode of the ABC talk show. While discussing a controversial Real Time with Bill Maher clip in which Maher criticized the existence of the US Black national anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” she took him to task for writing off centuries of African American culture and activism as a byproduct of “woke culture.”
During a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the titular host condemned the NFL for playing two national anthems at the season kickoff game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys: The “official” US national anthem, and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (which was performed by Alicia Keys).
“I think we should have one national anthem,” Maher said. “I think when you go down a road where you’re having two different national anthems, colleges sometimes now have … many of them have different graduation ceremonies for Black and white, separate dorms — this is what I mean! Segregation! You’ve inverted the idea. We’re going back to that under a different name.”
To Goldberg, this logic is the result American culture going backwards “a good 10, 15 years.”
“We’re having to reeducate people on how everyone wants to be talked about. These were all things that I thought we’d worked on together,” she said. “Just so you know, Bill, Lift Every Voice has always been considered the Black anthem. Maybe other people don’t know that. We don’t think rape humor is funny. It’s not funny!”
Co-hosts Sara Haines and Joy Behar echoed Goldberg’s statements, pointing out that the national anthem wasn’t written with all Americans in mind — in fact, writer Francis Scott Key owned slaves.
Guest host and conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham argued that many Americans feel passionate about the national anthem “because it stood for all of us in those rare moments when we were truly unified,” and because it honors millions of Americans who died for their country.
“My father, my grandfather fought in all of those wars. Couldn’t vote, but fought in all of these wars. We’ve been fighting to be seen as equal,” Goldberg responded.
“You cannot say this is happening because people are woke. I’ve never been asleep,” she continued. “In the culture that I’ve seen, we are fighting because there’s a big gap. Not just us, Native Americans, all the ‘other’ we’ve been talking about. America, get it together! We already dealt with this.”
