Mr. Paisley, I Am Not An Accidental Racist

Recently country & western star Brad Paisley teamed up with rapper LL Cool J to sing a song about racism called "Accidental Racist" where once again this generation feels the need to fall on the sword of its ancestors and take the blame for slavery and everything bad that ever happened to black people.

Race has always been a touchy subject and it's touchiness that has grown like a cancer since Obama (Bless His Holy Name) was elected. Anybody who disagrees with the president has been labeled a racist, a Jim Crow fanatic, a KKK member, etc., etc. It has become yet another disgusting tactic of the left amongst many disgusting tactics. But first, the song.

Paisley sings:

"To the man that waited on me at the Starbucks down on Main, I hope you understand
When I put on that t-shirt, the only thing I meant to say is I'm a Skynyrd fan
The red flag on my chest somehow is like the elephant in the corner of the south
And I just walked him right in the room
Just a proud rebel son with an 'ol can of worms
Lookin' like I got a lot to learn but from my point of view"

In other words, if you wear a T-shirt that has a Confederate flag on it, you might be a racist. Even if you're not, hence the title. So be careful what you wear and watch every single word you say because somewhere, somehow, a black person will hate you.

Paisley continues:

"'Cause I'm a white man livin' in the southland
Just like you I'm more than what you see
I'm proud of where I'm from but not everything we've done
And it ain't like you and me can re-write history
Our generation didn't start this nation
And we're still paying for the mistakes
That a bunch of folks made long before we came
And caught between southern pride and southern blame."

I appreciate that Mr. Paisley focused on the South, that hotbed of slavery and racism, where the good old boys still run the show and most walk around in wife beater T-shirts sucking on ham hocks while talking like Foghorn Leghorn using the grammatical skills of a goat and ending every sentence with "Freebird!" or "Get Her Done!" I'm not terribly fond of the south, but not because of slavery or the rebellion. Anybody who thinks that words like "I reckon", "we're fixin' to", and "all y'all" is proper English is an illiterate, and I'm not a fan of illiterates. I have never met a Southerner who does not use that combination of alleged words.

Mr. Paisley is typical of white left-wingers who think this country is horrible because of blips in the past where we weren't on our best behavior or living up to our ideals. Jim Crow laws were awful. Segregation, etc., all of it was bad, and an affront to what this country says it stands for. But we reversed course long ago. A lot of men died to reverse that course, but nobody seems to remember that. Any racism that continues in this country is the fault of individuals, and I refuse to join the pity party and say that slavery is my fault. It's not my fault; it's probably not your fault, either. Yet here we are surrounded by people who are looking for absolution from something that they had nothing to do with, and black people who continue to pick at the scabs and tell us their life would be better if our great, great grandparents hadn't owned their great, great, grandparents, so we need to give them a ton of money. (By the way, my great, great, grandparents weren't even in this country during that period, so don't lay your crap on me.) And Obama (Bless His Holy Name) has only made the problem worse (or at least his people have) by race baiting in an effort to silence critics. Why does it work? Because whites are sensitive to the accusation. Because whites feel guilty over something they had nothing to do with.

I think I am most offended with the line "And we're still paying for the mistakes." Why are we paying for those mistakes? Who is making us do that? Like Job, Mr. Paisley wants to spend his life wearing sackcloth and ashes and scratching his wounds with broken pottery hoping that somehow, someway, black people will tell him, "It's OK, bro. Let's hug it out, dawg."

LL Cool J, that rapper from back in the day, sort of makes my point:

"Dear Mr. White Man, I wish you understood

What the world is really like when you're livin' in the hood
Just because my pants are saggin' doesn't mean I'm up to no good
You should try to get to know me, I really wish you would
Now my chains are gold but I'm still misunderstood
I wasn't there when Sherman's March turned the south into firewood
I want you to get paid but be a slave I never could
Feel like a new fangled Django, dodgin' invisible white hoods
So when I see that white cowboy hat, I'm thinkin' it's not all good
I guess we're both guilty of judgin' the cover not the book
I'd love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air
But I see that red flag and I think you wish I wasn't here."

In other words, if we would only talk, we could understand each other. I'm all for conversation. Usually when I get a bad first impression of somebody, that impression can be turned around by a short chat, but not always. Sometimes the cover is the book, my friends. But I think LL Cool J really does make my point. The alleged hatred of blacks to whites may be a figment of the white's imagination, but whites are too busy beating their breasts--"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Black Person, why am I so horrible, why, why, why!"--to take that into account.

There's a lot to disagree with in the lyrics. Why do whites think they're under a racial microscope? Why do whites assume that blacks are always looking for offensive things? Maybe some are, but I'm not so sure. I think most blacks, like everybody else, are busy thinking about their own lives and activities and not watching for the racist around the corner.

This song has stirred up much conversation, from some who say it shouldn't be brought up to others who applaud what Mr. Paisley has said. I haven't heard anybody say, though, that perhaps Mr. Paisley is trying to take on a load that he was never meant to carry. One cannot ignore past mistakes, but one should also not wallow in them, either. Whites and blacks need to stop wallowing. Our attitudes are different now. The world is different now. In a lot of ways, it's better now. Why can't we focus on the changes that have been made instead of the problem? A lot of Yankee vets died for those changes, and we dishonor their memory and their sacrifice by continuing to feel guilty.

And, seriously, Mr. Cool J? If I see a fellow with his pants halfway down his rear end, I don't necessarily think he's a thug, but I do think he's a lazy bum who can't be bothered to properly dress himself. If you're fixin' to get some respect, I reckon all y'all need to pull up your goddamn pants.

ABOUT: Brian Drake is the author of The Rogue Gentleman and co-host of "Drake & The Deacon" on RadioSlot.Com.