(Western Journal) In 2000, a neo-soul singer released a debut album with a title that made her name into a question: “Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1.” That album went platinum and launched Scott into a career in music which continues to this day.
Unfortunately, 23 years later, the world has learned more about who Jill Scott is.
On Wednesday, the black women’s lifestyle magazine Essence tweeted a clip of Scott performing a grotesque vandalization of the national anthem at its Festival of Culture in New Orleans over the Fourth of July weekend.
The Los Angeles Times provided a transcript of Scott’s hatchet job:
Oh say can you see by the blood in the streets
That this place doesn’t smile on you colored child
Whose blood built this land with sweat and their hands
But we’ll die in this place and your memory erased
Oh say, does this truth hold any weight
This is not the land of the free, but the home of the slaves.
Essence was proud of the desecration it sponsored, declaring, “Everyone please rise for the only National Anthem we will be recognizing from this day forward.”
Everyone please rise for the only National Anthem we will be recognizing from this day forward.
Jill Scott, we thank you! #ESSENCEFest pic.twitter.com/WrYrP1nhTc
— ESSENCE (@Essence) July 5, 2023
Scott sings about how oppressed black people are in America, while at the same time her life tells a very different story. It’s difficult to reconcile her elite status with the accusations she made in the rewrite.
Her net worth is estimated to be $12 million, money earned by being a respected entertainer.
Many took to social media to point out the disparity between Scott’s claims about oppression and her status as a wealthy, privileged American celebrity.
Jason Whitlock, a podcaster with TheBlaze, shared some pithy comments on Scott’s posing.
“The safest, most opportunity-rich place on the planet for black people is the United States of America,” he said. “From the three Marxist lesbians who started BLM to Jill Scott, the black matriarchy keeps writing bad checks.”
Jill Scott’s national anthem, as performed at the Essence Festival:
“Oh, say can you see, by the blood in the streets. This place doesn’t smile on you, colored child. Whose blood built this land with sweat and their hands. But we’ll die in this place and your memory erased. Oh,…
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) July 5, 2023
Republican congressional candidate Lavern Spicer also called out the disconnect on Twitter.
Others shared similar sentiments.
IRONY—A woman with a net worth of over $12 million dollars is singing to a packed Caesars Superdome about how bad you have it in America.
Jill Scott performed this cringe at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, an exclusively black event that ‘celebrates Black artists and Black… pic.twitter.com/rY5WCCOm2h
— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) July 6, 2023
Everyone please rise for the only National Anthem we will be recognizing from this day forward.
Jill Scott, we thank you! #ESSENCEFest pic.twitter.com/WrYrP1nhTc
— ESSENCE (@Essence) July 5, 2023
Everyone please rise for the only National Anthem we will be recognizing from this day forward.
Jill Scott, we thank you! #ESSENCEFest pic.twitter.com/WrYrP1nhTc
— ESSENCE (@Essence) July 5, 2023
We sure seem to have a lot of oppressed fat millionaires in this awful country.
— Holly 🇺🇸🐊 (@CrossingUNStyle) July 7, 2023
After performing the song in March, Scott denied the divisiveness of her lyrics, according to the Times.
