California High (Photo: San Ramon Valley Unified School District)
Student leaders at a California high school have banned America’s “outdated and racially offensive” national anthem from being played at school rallies.
The Associated Student Body at California High School in San Ramon, in the San Francisco Bay Area, blacklisted “The Star-Spangled Banner” over a third verse that is rarely ever played.
“It was brought to our attention that the national anthem’s third verse is outdated and racially offensive,” wrote Ariyana Kermanizadeh in an open letter. “We had nothing but good intentions by removing the song so that we could be fully inclusive to our student body.”
The verse in questions includes the line “No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of the flight or the gloom of the grave.”
Kermanizadeh wrote: “This verse translated, finds joy in the killing of African-Americans. To think that our nation’s
