Things took a decided turn for the shockingly unpatriotic at the men\u2019s and women\u2019s finals in the U.S. Open over the weekend, as the U.S. national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, was not played before the finals matches. Instead, the song \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing,\u201d often referred to as the \u201cblack national anthem\u201d was played, as was \u201cAmerica the Beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tournament took place in New York, with, Coco Gauff defeating Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the women\u2019s final match, and Novak Djokovic defeating Daniil Medvedev in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the men\u2019s final match. The U.S. national anthem was not played before either match, though it was played before the tournament\u2019s opening ceremonies.<\/p>\n
Megyn Kelly drew attention to the missing anthem on X (formerly Twitter), saying, \u201cNo national anthem at the #USOpen \u2013 just a mixture of America the Beautiful & Lift Every Voice & Sing. This, as everywhere we are barraged with \u201c50 years of equal pay!\u201d reminders and Moderna signs. Can we just have a non-woke, non-agenda pushing men\u2019s tennis championship?\u201c<\/p>\n
Former ESPN personality Sage Steele agreed with Kelly\u2019s sentiment, saying, \u201cAhhh\u2026 the irony of refusing to allow our national anthem \u2026 at the *US* Open. I remain hopeful that we can get back to truly appreciating the greatness of America, but man\u2026this is sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Steele\u2019s post caused a huge fight in the comments section, with many furious the anthem wasn\u2019t played and others claiming that now only racists support the American national anthem, so they were glad it was gone.<\/p>\n
On the pro-anthem side, one commenter said, \u201cCould. Not. Agree. More. The level of hatred for our great Country makes me sick. There are so many other countries these pathetic losers can move to.\u201d On the other side, one crazed commenter said, \u201cDoesn\u2019t bother me at all. White nationalists and their sympathizers have hijacked the anthem and flag. I feel very uneasy in neighborhoods where I see many Americans flags flying. Bars too\u2026 you all know what\u2019s going on blame woke. You\u2019re a sleeping Fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organizers for the U.S. Open had announced on Aug. 27 that \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d and \u201cLift Every Voice and Sing\u201d would be performed before the men\u2019s singles championship, with \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d also announced for the women\u2019s singles championship, though that statement did not say that those songs would be played instead of the US national anthem.<\/p>\n
The other incident from the finals that led to online controversy was when Coco Gauff, the women\u2019s winner, celebrated her intense and hard-fought victory by getting on her knees and thanking the Lord. Disney-owned ESPN claimed on its Twitter account not that Ms. Gauff was giving thanks in prayer, but rather that \u201c.@CocoGaufftook a moment to soak it all in after winning her first Grand Slam title\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Things took a decided turn for the shockingly unpatriotic at the men\u2019s and women\u2019s finals in the U.S. Open over the weekend, as the U.S. national anthem,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n