Bill Maher slams NFL for black national anthem, calls it ‘segregation under a different name’

‘It’s segregation’: Bill Maher slams NFL for playing ‘black national anthem’ at games and warns having different anthems for different races is dangerous

  • Bill Maher took aim at the NFL on Friday following Thursday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
  • The talk show host slammed the league for allowing Alicia Keys performed what he described as ‘segregation’ but ‘under a different name’
  • Maher took issue with the league for playing ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ before the national anthem at the first game of the regular 2021 season 
  • ‘I think when you go down a road where you’re having two different national anthems, many (colleges) have different graduation ceremonies for black, white’
  • ‘Separate dorms. … This is what I mean: segregation,’ Maher said the day after Thursday’s game 
  • ‘Maybe we should get rid of our national anthem, but I think we should have one national anthem,’ added Maher


Bill Maher took aim at the NFL for playing Lift Every Voice and Sing – otherwise known as the black national anthem – at Thursday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Real Time with Bill Maher host warned that having two different national anthems, based on race, was a slippery slope to ‘segregation’ but ‘under a different name,’ he said.

‘I think when you go down a road where you’re having two different national anthems, colleges… have different graduation ceremonies for black and white, separate dorms… this is what I mean: segregation,’ Maher said on his Friday show.

‘Maybe we should get rid of our national anthem, but I think we should have one national anthem,’ he added. 

During Friday’s episode of ‘Real Time with Bill Maher,’ the show’s brash slammed the NFL for playing ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ before the national anthem at Thursday’s game

The historically black university Florida A&M's Concert Choir (pictured) joined Keys for Thursday's performance of 'Every Voice and Sing,' better known as the 'black National Anthem'

The historically black university Florida A&M’s Concert Choir (pictured) joined Keys for Thursday’s performance of ‘Every Voice and Sing,’ better known as the ‘black National Anthem’

Maher took issue with Alicia Keys, pictured, performing what he calls 'segregation' but 'under a different name'

Maher took issue with Alicia Keys, pictured, performing what he calls ‘segregation’ but ‘under a different name’

The historically black university Florida A&M's Concert Choir joined Keys for Thursday's performance of Every Voice and Sing

The historically black university Florida A&M’s Concert Choir joined Keys for Thursday’s performance of Every Voice and Sing

Maher took it one step further and called out fellow liberals for creating the environment where two National Anthems would be used. 

‘When people say to me sometimes, ‘boy, you go after the Left a lot these days, why?’ I’m like ‘Because you’re embarrassing me!’ 

‘That’s why I’m going after the left in a way you never did before. I’m not going to give up on being liberal,’ he continued. 

‘You’re taking children and making them hyper-aware of race in a way they wouldn’t otherwise be.’

Eric Reid (left) and Colin Kaepernick (right) protest racist police brutality before a 2016 game

Eric Reid (left) and Colin Kaepernick (right) protest racist police brutality before a 2016 game

The NFL is also advertising their social justice efforts on player's helmet decals, pictured, signs and PSAs, according to The Hill

The NFL is also advertising their social justice efforts on player’s helmet decals, pictured, signs and PSAs, according to The Hill 

The historically black university Florida A&M’s Concert Choir joined Keys for Thursday’s performance of Every Voice and Sing. The black national anthem was played before the national anthem at the first game of the regular 2021 season. 

The song had already appeared in previous seasons, including Super Bowl LV when players from the Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs joined hands while Keys performed the song.  

The league had previously said it will use the song before ‘tentpole games’ following the NFL’s $250 million, 10-year pledge to combat racism, The Hill reports. 

The league is also advertising their social justice efforts on player’s helmet decals, signs and PSAs, according to the news outlet.  

How ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ became known as the black national anthem 

‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ which was written in 1900 by civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson, was first set to music in 1905 by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson. 

The song became a ‘rallying cry’ for African-Americans during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, and has since gained popularity in the years since.

The lyrics embody the hope that African-Americans had in seeking freedom and equality and to learn what ‘the dark past has taught us,’ the New York Times report.

The NFL started to use the song in light of nationwide protests for racial equality following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and more.

The song was even performed before the draft in April. 

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk