Isiah Thomas Tells Jason Whitlock He Opposes Having a Black National Anthem: ‘It’s Emphasizing Our Separateness’

During a detailed and wide-ranging discussion of race between conservative sports columnist Jason Whitlock and NBA Hall-of-Famer Isiah Thomas, the topic eventually shifted to the Black national anthem.

“When you sing the national anthem and then you sing the Black national anthem, the only thing that it does is it’s emphasizing our separateness,” Thomas said on The Blaze’s Fearless with Jason Whitlock.

Just as they did last season, the NFL has continued to feature the song Lift Every Voice and Sing, often referred to as the Black national anthem, prior to major league events. Last year, the ballad was performed without much backlash, but this season, the anthem has been a point of public contention.

“Our Founding Fathers, when they wrote the constitution and everything else, they were talking about bringing us together under one umbrella, under one constitution, where all men and women are created equal,” Thomas continued. “When you sing those two different anthems, you’re just emphasizing…there are two different statuses in this country. Black and White.”

Thomas says Black and White is used to separate status, not race. During the interview with Whitlock, Thomas shared his belief that race is a false social construct used to divide. Thomas notes that he came to this conclusion through his life experiences as a Black man and his educational studies, earning a master’s degree at UC Berkeley.

“If you want to have one national anthem, then let’s come together collectively and decide what the national anthem is going to be for this country,” Thomas told Whitlock. “Not just the White national anthem, because the White national anthem has classified as status.”

Whitlock, who also opposes the Black national anthem, pushed back on the idea of coming up with a new song for everyone. “That Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and national anthem, it worked for us,” Whitlock said. “Maybe it wasn’t intended for us, but it did work for us.”

Watch above via Fearless with Jason Whitlock