How Do Americans Feel About the Anthem at Sporting Events?
A few years ago, Aaron Stinchcomb II dropped to his knee when the national anthem played before a University of Mississippi home football game. It was an impromptu, solemn gesture to acknowledge racial inequalities in America.
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Though it took place during the national anthem, Stinchcomb’s act wasn’t an “anthem protest.” He believes the song should be played before sporting events, but he understands those who don’t. Well before Colin Kaepernick led people to examine the full lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — before the Dallas Mavericks briefly stopped playing the anthem this season and before the Wisconsin State Assembly passed a bill requiring it to be played before events at publicly funded venues — Stinchcomb knew the song’s history. He knew it was written by a former enslaver who used the third stanza to reference a blight on American history: “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave …”
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Those views align with most Americans’, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in March that found that 84 percent of Americans support the anthem being played or sung before professional sporting events. Seventy-one percent feel positive when the song plays. {snip}
The results also hint at the stark racial divide among Americans about how they feel about the song. While four-fifths of White Americans and two-thirds of both Hispanics and Asian Americans say the anthem makes them feel positive, a much smaller 35 percent of Black Americans share those emotions. And 22 percent of Black Americans say they feel negative when they hear the song at sporting events.
No more than 8 percent of other racial or ethnic groups had a negative reaction. Just over 4 in 10 (42 percent) Black adults said they feel neither positive nor negative about hearing the anthem, 20 percentage points higher than adults overall.
Asked to describe, in their own words, what the anthem represents when played at sporting events, 31 percent of Americans overall mentioned pride, patriotism or freedom. Another 19 percent cited respect or honor for the country or military; 12 percent said it represents unity. But Black Americans were less likely to mention these broadly positive interpretations, with 23 percent of Black adults volunteering that the anthem is hurtful or not representative of them. Only 1 percent of White adults said the same.
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The song has been played at sporting events for nearly 150 years, dating from when it was used to commemorate a new stadium in New York during the Civil War. Early in the 20th century, it was played at military events and, most famously, during the 1918 World Series. It officially was declared the national anthem in 1931; by World War II, it was played before every baseball game, plus movies and other events, growing into a cultural mainstay.
Some Black Americans have long found discomfort in the tradition. A quarter-century after he integrated Major League Baseball in 1947, Jackie Robinson, who was drafted and served in the Army during World War II, wrote in his autobiography, “I Never Had It Made,” that he couldn’t stand and sing the anthem or salute the flag because “I know that I am a black man in a white world.”
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Lisa English, 64, a retired health-care worker from Rose Hill, N.C., waves a flag outside her home. “To me, it’s a history lesson. It’s part of our natural history, and I think it should remain that way,” she said.
She’s a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution; her seventh great grandfather served in the Revolutionary War. A Tennessee native, English said she would always stand when the anthem was played at University of Tennessee football games. She once attended a game shortly after having surgery on her leg, and the cast kept her from standing when the song was played.
“I didn’t get up, and it made me feel horrible,” English said.
Older Americans such as English and Plantone drive support for the tradition: 86 percent of seniors say hearing the anthem makes them feel positive, compared with 51 percent of adults under 30.
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The Post-UMD poll finds Americans continue to divide along racial and partisan lines over athletes who kneel during the anthem. Eight in 10 Black Americans said athletes who kneel during the anthem represent their beliefs, including almost 6 in 10 who said they do “a great deal.” A majority of Asian Americans (64 percent) and Hispanic Americans (54 percent) said kneeling protesters represent their beliefs, too, though far smaller shares said they do so “a great deal.” Among White Americans, 37 percent said kneeling athletes represent their beliefs, while 62 percent said they don’t represent what they think.
The partisan divide is even starker, with 76 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saying athletes who kneel during the anthem to protest racial inequality represent them, compared with 14 percent of those who identify or lean Republican.
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{snip} When asked how they would feel if professional sports leagues stopped playing or singing the anthem before games, nearly 6 in 10 Americans (57 percent) say they support playing the anthem and would be upset if the practice ended. “Where else would they hear it?” English said.
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Again, though, that sentiment is most prevalent among White adults (68 percent), the poll shows. It dips to 51 percent of Hispanic adults, 45 percent of Asian Americans and 24 percent of Black Americans. About a third of Black Americans say they would not be upset if sports teams stopped playing the anthem before games (34 percent), and another 41 percent oppose playing it at all.
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