In a twist of regrettable irony, PBS Broadcasting has asked Black Lives Matter singer Mickey Guyton to host the annual Independence Day concert, “A Capitol Fourth,” on their American Forces channel, which is cosponsered by the U.S. Army. The young country singer became famous for her Grammy-nominated song “Black Like Me,” which uncoincidentally bears the same monogram as Black Lives Matter.
Guyton wrote the song in the wake of George Floyd’s death as a celebration of the BLM movement. One line reads, “If you think we live in the land of the free, you should try to be black like me.”
In a Federalist exclusive, Bob Woodson, civil rights activist and founder of the Woodson Center, called Guyton’s song “a slap in the face” and “an insult to all black Americans, particularly those that have sacrificed their lives.”
“They fought so someone like this person would have the freedom to decry the values of the nation,” he said.
The U.S. Army, along with The National Park Service, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, American Airlines, and The Boeing Company are providers for the concert. Although nothing the Army does should surprise us after their lesbian recruitment ad in 2021, financially supporting a BLM advocate who has publicly condemned the “land of the free” to host a concert celebrating our nation’s Independence Day on national television is a hypocritical move indeed.
“I find it particularly distressing that the Department of the Army would be one of the supporters,” Woodson said, “because what Black Lives Matter has said is that America is fundamentally flawed—it is racist at its core, it’s almost a criminal organization. Well, why would you expect young men and young women to volunteer to sacrifice their lives for a country that its own military says is racist and therefore culpable in perpetuating injustice? It’s a contradiction.”
He also noted the irony that Guyton became famous as a result of the highly successful American system. “And yet, she is going to defame the country and send the message to other blacks it’s not possible to achieve here the success that she has,” he said. “Really, it’s a contradiction for her to be critical of the nation that is responsible for her individual success.”
Guyton’s anti-American claims don’t represent most African Americans, according to a recent study. It and many other studies have demonstrated that personal life choices — like having kids before marriage, quitting high school, and not keeping a full-time job — not racism, are the factors that curtail non-white Americans’ upward mobility.
