Is America's national anthem racist?

How do you ask this question just a few years ago to fans at a baseball, basketball, or

football game?

They would have assumed you had imbibed one too many beers.

Today, thanks to an assault by the progressive left on the Star Spangled Banner and its

composer, Francis Scott Key, you might get a different reaction.

For example, here's what Jason Johnson, journalism professor at Morgan State University, and

popular cable news commentator wrote about the anthem.

It is one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-black songs in the American lexicon.

Is Johnson serious?

Actually he is.

And sadly, a lot of progressives agree with him.

But why?

To answer that question, we need a brief history of the song.

Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner after witnessing the American victory at the Battle of Fort

McKenry during the War of 1812, a rare bright spot in the young country's second conflict

with Britain, a conflict in which the Americans mostly got their butts kicked.

Critics like Johnson focus on the third stanza in which Key mocks the retreating British soldiers.

Before describing those lyrics, I need to make a point.

The third stanza is virtually unknown.

Almost no American has ever sung, read, or heard it.

But even so, it's not nearly as offensive as it's made out to be.

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