Last month’s Super Bowl taught millions of Americans a couple of things: One, Rihanna is having another baby. And two, Black people have their own national anthem.
If you happened to miss the section of the Super Bowl before Rihanna took to Halftime Show stage, Broadway icon and Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph performed a rousing rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Negro or Black National Anthem. Notably, it was the first time the song, written by James Weldon Johnson, had been performed during the broadcast. This, of course, sent racists and conservative pundits into a frenzy.
Now, Ralph is responding to the haters in her characteristically funny and charming fashion on Wednesday night’s episode of Comedy Central’s Tooning Out The News in an exclusive clip for The Daily Beast.
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Ralph let out her signature cackle in response to Megyn Kelly’s tirade against the anthem’s place at the Super Bowl on her radio show and a tweet from Colorado representative Lauren Boebert denouncing the song.
On The Megyn Kelly Radio Show on Feb. 13, the former Fox News host controversially said, “There is no reason to have a Black national anthem sung before the Super Bowl. But there’s one national anthem. It unites us all. It’s about love of country.”
“There’s no point in dividing us by race going into something that is already unifying us as a country,” Kelly added.
“That woman is amazing,” Ralph said in response to the clip on Tooning Out The News, before proceeding to school Kelly on the significance of the Black National Anthem.
“That song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing’ is 123 years old,” the Emmy-winning actress said. “And it was written to commemorate the birthday of our 16th president Abraham Lincoln. The fact that people want to feel divided by such sentiment and such lyrics—it tells you that there are some people in the country, in the world… I guess there’s nothing that will ever truly make them happy until America is no longer the home of the free and the brave.”
Who could disagree with America’s favorite kindergarten teacher?
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