Repeating a controversial move from last year’s Super Bowl (and most recent sports events since 2020), the NFL announced that they are beginning Super Bowl LVIII with the so-called “Black National Anthem,” as well as the actual national anthem.

As announced by Adam Schefter, an ESPN reporter and podcast host, on X (formerly Twitter), the NFL has chosen country legend Reba McEntire to sing the national anthem, rapper Post Malone (of all people) to sing “America the Beautiful,” and singer/actress Andra Day, most famous for playing Billie Holliday in the 2021 biopic “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Certainly the folks on X (formerly Twitter), aren’t altogether enthused by its inclusion in the Super Bowl. User Eli Racks rhetorically asked “so yall just going to be have people stand for 25 minutes,” while other users, like PolkTheArtist, asked why “do we need Lift Every Voice and Sing?”

Granted, the song was not plucked out of the air last year at the Super Bowl.

First written in 1900, the song is a hymn of thanksgiving referencing God freeing the Israelites from slavery in the Book of Exodus

While not explicitly referring to a particular race, it has long been an important cultural touchstone for the black community.

That said, its newfound ubiquity is a direct result of the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

It wasn’t until BLM protestors started burning down the country that the song migrated to more public arenas, with the major sports teams and even PBS playing the song in addition to, or even instead of, the actual national anthem.

Now, there is nothing wrong with the song on its own, and taken at face value, it’s a beautiful hymn of thanksgiving, praising God for rescuing us from the grip of evil.