On my happier days, I’d like to think there’s a bit of good to be found in everything.
Take wokeness, for example. Wokeness is a horrible, culture-eating virus that has infected nearly all public and private institutions in the West.
However, it’s certainly woken conservatives up from a relative slumber where cutting taxes and repealing Obamacare were all we cared about. Furthermore, the virus sometimes eats its own, which is a truly delightful thing to behold. (See: Stewart, Jon; Kimmel, Jimmy.)
But perhaps most importantly, it’s introduced one of my favorite words and concepts into common cultural currency: Performativity.
“Performative” is defined by Merriam-Webster, at least in this context, as “made or done for show (as to bolster one’s own image or make a positive impression on others).” For instance, whenever you see an able-bodied Hollywood actor apologizing profusely for playing a wheelchair-using character 15 years ago, you’re witnessing performativity in action.
If you needed a further object lesson in the concept of performativity, you needn’t look any further than the Super Bowl on Sunday.
As you may be aware, the NFL has become a hive of woke performativity after the annus horribilis of 2020. Commissioner Roger Goodell essentially gave official sanction to the notorious national anthem protester Colin Kaepernick and practically begged teams to sign him.
(The fact nobody did proved that concern about discrimination against Kaepernick was performativity itself in the first place; he played his way out of a job with his declining skills and focus on activism as opposed to quarterbacking.)
It put “End Racism” and “It Takes All of Us” in the back of the end zones at stadia around the league, thus getting all of us to end racism. Thanks for solving the problem, NFL!
Should the ‘Black National Anthem’ be played at the Super Bowl?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 100% (34 Votes)
And, in the most performative move it could make, the league started performing what’s commonly known as the “black national anthem” — “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — before every Super Bowl since Super Bowl LV, the first one played post-George Floyd.
This year, R&B singer Andra Day performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Day isn’t a bad singer, mind you; I like the one album of original material she’s put out, which is nine years old at this point.
Unfortunately for Day, and the NFL, the reaction to her performance couldn’t have been more muted if this was someone making a three-foot putt at the Masters:
.@AndraDayMusic performs Lift Every Voice and Sing before #SBLVIII! pic.twitter.com/gNRZ9XyibV
— NFL (@NFL) February 11, 2024
Compare this to the reaction to Reba McEntire singing the actual national anthem, which drew wild applause and even tears from Kansas City Chiefs star Chris Jones:
JUST IN: Reba McEntire performs the National Anthem at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/zie1WXBsX3
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 11, 2024
Well, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee — who describes himself as a “Champion for Justice and Civil Rights on Judiciary Committee” on his X profile — was Not Happy™ about the reaction Andra Day’s version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” received. So, he decided to get performative on social media.
“Very very few stood at Super Bowl for ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’” Cohen posted. “The Negro National Anthem. Not a pretty picture of Super Bowl crowd.”
Very very few stood at Super Bowl for “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.
The Negro National Anthem.
Not a pretty picture of Super Bowl crowd.,— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) February 11, 2024
First: “Negro” national anthem? Hi, Steve, I’m 1968, and I want my politically correct way to refer to black people back.
Cohen, just in case you’re wondering, is whiter than mayonnaise smeared on a John Mayer album. His district, according to Census Reporter, includes the city of Memphis and is 63 percent black.
I’d love to hear him explain his description of the song as the “Negro national anthem” to his constituency — because, if that comes up at a town hall, there isn’t enough performativity in this woke world to save his behind.
This did not, you will not be surprised to know, endear Rep. Cohen to the wider social media world:
Hi American Negro here – y’all have my permission to not stand for the fake national anthem. Notice how the divisive rhetoric always generates from non black non white agitators who reap the financial benefits of our disharmony.
Let’s all get back to the buisness of being…— Tommy Vext (@TVext) February 12, 2024
The AMERICAN national anthem doesn’t see color. Dems have been the front line in dividing this country with race wars.
— Ash Haul (@ash_haul) February 12, 2024
You’re a great guy Steve but we don’t have dual anthems and only one gets the respect of standing. If they want an anthem , all good, but you should only stand for the national anthem.
— Ed (@Ed2956Ed) February 12, 2024
But wait, he wasn’t done: People had wrong opinions on the internet, and he had to correct them!
Well, I honor our national anthem and respect it as representing our country and in our pride in it. However if you look at the history and some of the verbiage, it does relate to slavery and not in a questioning manner.
— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) February 12, 2024
246 years of slavery
— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) February 12, 2024
I stand for both.And in Memphis, most do.
— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) February 12, 2024
Pro tip, Steve: In Memphis, most black people don’t call themselves “negro.” Stop digging your hole deeper.
Keep in mind, the game was not being played in Memphis, which doesn’t have an NFL team, or in Nashville, which does. It was being played in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Tennessee Titans didn’t even make the playoffs, and neither the Kansas City Chiefs nor the San Francisco 49ers are the adopted team of Tennessee.
The most recognizable link to Tennessee in the game was Taylor Swift — a Nashville resident who doesn’t spend most of her time in the state these days and wasn’t involved in the black national anthem.
That didn’t stop Rep. Cohen from posting a barely coherent missive about Swift/Kelce, trying to make non-existent conservative conspiracy theories about the Super Bowl happen the same way that the NFL is trying to make the “black national anthem” happen.
If Kelce would’ve caught that one theQAnon would’ve and still might lose it and start up their election conspiracy stuff. Wonder if Taylor ate pizza?
— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) February 12, 2024
Righty-O. That sounds like one heck of a watch party you were at, Steve.
The point is that Rep. Cohen had no skin in this game aside from the fact that he’s a white Democrat representing a majority black district. Hence, he felt he had to get performative about the non-response the very performative “black national anthem” received at the Super Bowl.
When basically every commenter slammed him for his performativity — and let me tell you, I looked for one positive response and the closest I could find is the guy who prefaced his criticism of Cohen by saying he was “a great guy” — he couldn’t turn the performativity off, chastising them for having opinions that weren’t his.
He then targeted a small cadre of idiot anti-Semites in his comments section (Rep. Cohen is Jewish, something that’s entirely irrelevant to everyone who isn’t a disgusting troll), quote-posting them in an attempt to recast the backlash to his remarks as “racist antisemitic” gibberish.
Except it wasn’t. Nobody really shared Rep. Cohen’s outrage over the lack of people standing for Andra Day’s performance. The vast majority of people, regardless of color, don’t share the obsession with slavery and “white supremacy” that elected Democrats do, or at least pretend to. Moreover, they can’t be forced to share that obsession, no matter how relentless the messaging is.
The “black national anthem” itself was peak performativity, the same way that Cohen’s feigned concern was performativity. It’s a great word for a great concept that conservatives don’t employ enough on the liberals and progressives who exhibit it.
And, as for wokeness eating its own, enjoy explaining your use of “Negro” in 2024 to your constituents, Rep. Cohen. What I wouldn’t give for a seat at that astonishingly performative town hall.
