Francis Scott Key, the wealthy American lawyer who wrote, "The Star Spangled Banner" was a slaveholder who believed blacks to be "a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community."
The third stanza of his anthem The Star-Spangled Banner, "No refuge could save the hireling and slave. From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave" refers to black slaves hired to fight on the side of the British during the War of 1812 on the promise of gaining their freedom.
If an African American wants to protest by NOT singing this song (NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick) then they should be allowed to do so without repercussion; it is their right. All the white people out there who "take offense" need to just shut the fuck up.
I don't know how many white people I've heard complain over the years about the song "F*ck Tha Police" as being a crime in and of itself and, if had a choice, would ban the song without giving it a second thought, yet have the gall to criticize those who refuse to sing the National Anthem.
It's called Freedom of Speech, bitches... I've heard your faux indignation for years over the way African Americans express themselves in rap music and I'm sure we'll hear it for an eternity; it is your right to be assholes.
I'm just tired of white people not seeing the double standards by which they live.