An American soccer club says they will no longer play The Star-Spangled Banner before home games and will replace it with a song interpreted by many as having Marxist undertones.
The Tulsa Athletic, a semi-professional team based in Oklahoma, announced the decision to nix the National Anthem in order to “create an inclusive community.”
Instead, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” will be performed by local musicians during pregame formalities.
The club cited the Anthem’s third verse, which includes the lines, “No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,” as a driving factor behind the move.
“While this verse is rarely sung, Tulsa Athletic does not believe ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ represents or unites their diverse players, fans and community,” the Athletic said in a press release.
Team co-owner Sonny Dalesandro said his organization has endeavored to develop “a culture of inclusion and acceptance.”
“We live in a country that allows us to freely speak our voice,” Dalesandro asserted. “We utilize this right as a club to continually try and improve our team and community. We believe ‘This Land Is Your Land’ not only captures a powerful patriotic sentiment, but that it does so in a far more inclusive way.”
“The song speaks to this country being built and shared by every person of every race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation.”
Guthrie, who wrote “This Land Is Your Land” in the early 1940s, was well-known for his Marxist politics, having penned columns for a communist newspaper and being loosely tied to communist groups.
He also famously emblazoned the phrase “This machine kills fascists” across many of his guitars.
“Guthrie, who loved the writings of Karl Marx, was reflecting Marx’s primary goal written in his infamous book the Communist Manifesto, where Marx declared that all private property should be abolished,” Dr. Jake Jacobs wrote in a 2018 article about Guthrie’s most popular song.
“While many have attempted to revise and reinterpret Guthrie’s controversial communist legacy since his death, Guthrie himself was never afraid to let his true communist colors shine.”
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