Re: this.
Hello there, Unsolicited Analysis. We meet again. This is the Black National Anthem. It’s a beautiful and moving song. If your last exposure to it was during that high school assembly, I highly recommend you give it a listen.
Now, in my admittedly white and privileged opinion, I can see the Black National Anthem and its message as totally valid and not divisive. Recognizing and celebrating differences and diversity does not equal segregation.
By sitting down in an auditorium/gymnasium full of people who were standing, you said very clearly and disruptively, “I do not respect your experience as a black person.” This, while not your intent, was the message you conveyed; it was a very divisive one at that, and thus counterproductive. You, a white kid, ended up detracting attention from your black classmates who were, for the length of one school assembly, given the opportunity to express their American experience, how it differed from yours. And by immediately dismissing the possibility that these students may be playing the Black National Anthem to demonstrate the struggle of black people in America and that this deserves respect, yes, I can see how it was racist, even if your racism was coming from a place of ignorance/unexamined privilege. A better choice would have been to keep an open mind. Which is something you appear to be trying to do now, I think, so there’s that. And you were in high school; we all make rash decisions in high school.
You haven’t mentioned how you currently feel about the Black National Anthem, and while your opinions may have changed, you did not clearly articulate that, although doing so could have saved you quite a bit of grief here on Tumblr today.
5 FILE UNDER: eva cassidy sings to my soul
