Anthem Singer at NBA Game Takes Knee During Performance

A San Francisco-based singer knelt during a performance of the National Anthem at a preseason NBA game Tuesday.

Leah Tysse dropped to a knee as she sang the words “o’er the land of the free” prior to Tuesday night’s Sacramento Kings preseason game. A plurality of the crowd seemed, in the video below via Tysse, to cheer her act of protest.

Tysse posted a statement explaining her protest to Facebook, which read, in part:

This act embodies the conflict many of us feel. I love and honor my country as deeply as anyone yet it is my responsibility as an American to speak up against injustice as it affects my fellow Americans. I have sung the anthem before but this time taking a knee felt like the most patriotic thing I could do. I cannot idly stand by as black people are unlawfully profiled, harassed and killed by our law enforcement over and over and without a drop of accountability. I believe that the majority of police are good and are against this too and as a nation we all need to speak up.

[image via screengrab]

–

Follow Joe DePaolo (@joe_depaolo) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!