'It's segregation': Bill Maher slams NFL for playing 'black national anthem' at games and warns having different anthems for different races is dangerous
Bill Maher took aim at the NFL for playing Lift Every Voice and Sing - otherwise known as the black national anthem - at Thursday's game between the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Real Time with Bill Maher host warned that having two different national anthems, based on race, was a slippery slope to 'segregation' but 'under a different name,' he said.
'I think when you go down a road where you're having two different national anthems, colleges... have different graduation ceremonies for black and white, separate dorms... this is what I mean: segregation,' Maher said on his Friday show.
'Maybe we should get rid of our national anthem, but I think we should have one national anthem,' he added.
During Friday's episode of 'Real Time with Bill Maher,' the show's brash slammed the NFL for playing 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' before the national anthem at Thursday's game
The historically black university Florida A&M's Concert Choir (pictured) joined Keys for Thursday's performance of 'Every Voice and Sing,' better known as the 'black National Anthem'
Maher took issue with Alicia Keys, pictured, performing what he calls 'segregation' but 'under a different name'
The historically black university Florida A&M's Concert Choir joined Keys for Thursday's performance of Every Voice and Sing
Maher took it one step further and called out fellow liberals for creating the environment where two National Anthems would be used.
'When people say to me sometimes, ‘boy, you go after the Left a lot these days, why?’ I’m like ‘Because you’re embarrassing me!’
'That's why I'm going after the left in a way you never did before. I'm not going to give up on being liberal,' he continued.
'You're taking children and making them hyper-aware of race in a way they wouldn't otherwise be.'
Eric Reid (left) and Colin Kaepernick (right) protest racist police brutality before a 2016 game
The NFL is also advertising their social justice efforts on player's helmet decals, pictured, signs and PSAs, according to The Hill
The historically black university Florida A&M's Concert Choir joined Keys for Thursday's performance of Every Voice and Sing. The black national anthem was played before the national anthem at the first game of the regular 2021 season.
The song had already appeared in previous seasons, including Super Bowl LV when players from the Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs joined hands while Keys performed the song.
The league had previously said it will use the song before 'tentpole games' following the NFL's $250 million, 10-year pledge to combat racism, The Hill reports.
The league is also advertising their social justice efforts on player's helmet decals, signs and PSAs, according to the news outlet.
