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Amanda Seales says Gladys Knight and Chole x Halle can redeem themselves on Super Bowl Sunday with the Black National Anthem

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Jeff Kravitz/AMA2018/FilmMagic For dcp

Insecure actress and comedian Amanda Seales, often known for her unfiltered social commentary, is weighing in on the controversy surrounding this year’s Super Bowl performances by Gladys Knight and Chloe X Halle.

Seales says she’s disappointed that both Knight and the sister duo have agreed to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America The Beautiful” respectively, and adds that she’s even more confused by Knight’s contention that she can somehow “give the Anthem back its voice” and help to unite people.

“Gladys Knight definitely said she feels like she can give back the power, the patriotism to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,'” Seales tells ABC Radio.

“Sis, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ was written by a racist and it has racist lyrics in it,” she adds. “So, even if you’re not singing those [specific lyrics], you’re singing a song that contains them. You cannot give it back a power it never should have had in the first place.”

But even though Seales is against the idea of both artists contributing to the NFL’s biggest game, she says that there may be a solution. Specifically, she thinks the two acts can redeem themselves…IF they manage to turn both songs on their heads.

“Listen, I say all that to say [that] if they each go out there and do their own rendition of ‘Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing’….Hey, listen, I stand corrected!” she laughs.

“If you Spook By the Door the situation, I’m all here for it,” she adds, referring to the Sam Greenlee‘s 1969 novel, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, which focuses on the importance of black nationalism.

“Oh, I see what you was doing! O-K, O-K.”

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