Feelin' The Hate With Toby Keith Nation
Toby Keith likes to brag, "This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage." But when my reporting on the pro-lynching lyrics in his song, "Beer For My Horses," began to complicate the promo tour for his forthcoming "Southern comedy" movie of the same title, tough-talking Toby whined to the media. "The song was a hit and the words 'lynch' and 'racism' has [sic] never come up until this moron wrote this blog," he fumed to Contact Music.
When Fox News picked up Keith's comments, Big Dog Daddy's loyal fans bombarded my in-box with a deluge of indignant rants. While insisting to me that "Beer For My Horses" contained not even a hint of coded racial animus, Keith's fans simultaneously revealed their simmering resentment of Jews, blacks, and "faggy liberals."
Their hate-laden letters comprised the script for my latest video:
Toby Keith Nation Fights Back, a creative take on my hate mail
Keith claimed that "Beer For My Horses" was simply an anodyne ditty intended to evoke nostalgia for the Old West, where "bad guys" met justice at the end of a rope. "It's about the old West and horses and sheriffs ... and going and getting the bad guys. It's not a racist thing or about lynching," he said.
Why then did Keith sing so despairingly of car thieves, "corruption in the street," and terrorists who blow up buildings? Why did he invoke the swarthy boogeymen of the modern right-wing imagination right before launching into a verse about the good old days when his "grandpappy" would "take all the rope in Texas...find a tall oak tree," and "hang them high in the street, for all the people to see?" Maybe "Beer For My Horses" isn't about the Old West after all.
But since Keith has invoked that golden era of "horses and sheriffs...and going and getting the bad guys," it is fair to ask if he knows anything about the real history of lynching in Texas. Does he know that according to the Handbook of Texas, the Lone Star stood third among the states -- just behind Mississippi and Georgia -- in its total of lynching victims? Does Keith know that of the 468 people lynched in Texas, a whopping 339 were African-American (a partial list of black Texan lynching victims is here)?
Lynching was not, as Keith disingenuously claimed, a practice exclusive to gallant Hollywood cowboys played by Gene Autry (who couldn't even ride a horse) and Ronald Reagan. It was a mode of organized terror employed by groups like the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction to restore white supremacy in Texas and throughout the region.
Keith should immediately apologize for his musical monstrosity. Then I suggest he perform a cover of "Strange Fruit," the Billie Holiday anthem inspired by the anti-lynching poetry of Jewish school teacher Abel Meeropol. Holiday often cried (watch her here) as she performed her haunting dirge. On at least one occasion, she was so overcome with emotion she could not finish. With Toby Keith exploiting the South's most barbaric tradition for big bucks, Holiday's tears burn like salt on an unhealed wound.
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Regardless of context, any time a white southerner says the word "lynch," you can be sure that the n-word is lurking somewhere close by.
Toby Keith is a cowboy, not a "white southerner." And yes, there is a difference.
He's an oilfield roughneck from Oklahoma (not that there's anything wrong with that) - not a cowboy. A hat does not a cowboy make.
sure he is -- just like Dubya
Toby Keith's song had as much to do with Jews as Saddam had to do with 911.
One I dont believe the song is racist. Do I like the song? NO actually I think it is a dumb song. Two to the author, if you are going to bash Toby, bash the man who sang, and made a video with him as well. Willy Nelson, he was right there with Toby. You cant let one get off the hook and not the other. Either they are both racist, singing a racist song, or just ignorant of the images, and others feelings.
Not one, but both. Willy was there as well. Oh and by the way Toby loves that you continue to write about him. He has a movie coming out, based around this song. Everytime you bash him or this song, it gives him more publicity. His movie which was probally going to be a flop, might actually pull in more people, more money then expected.
Touché.
The movie BOMBED.
Whether about the common past southern practice of racial lynching or perhaps instead about cattle rustlers, 'lynching' is absolutely implied as the lyrics say nothing about 'arrest', or 'trial by jury', or show much concern for all that librul and unamurikan Constitutional 'Rule of Law' stuff.
It's reminiscent of the same hypocrisy in today's so-called Christians leaders, Max, that believe an old-testament passage of 'Leviticus hatred' carries more weight than the red-lettered words of 'their savior' telling his followers to, "Love thy neighbor as thyself".
According to the Gospels, Jesus DID NOT add, "...unless they're gay or lesbian".
Law MUST apply to everyone 'equally', or it doesn't actually exist.
Ever see the movie "Hang Em High?" "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?" Any western? (Anf how many Westerns took place in the south, btw. Let's see a Southern tonight, honey, what'd'ya say)? They lynch the "bad guys" all the time, and it isn't about racism. It's about knee-jerk justice and feel-good vigilanteism. Most all those guys are white, hangers and hangees. "They done stole my dogies, they gotta pay."
Pick fights that matter, folks. It makes liberals look like just what they say we do.
I'm a liberal atheist, and I approve this message.
No, they hang the bad guys - they lynch the black guys. There IS a difference!
Didn't Max address this very issue when he remarked that:
"Lynching was not, as Keith disingenuously claimed, a practice exclusive to gallant Hollywood cowboys played by Gene Autry (who couldn't even ride a horse) and Ronald Reagan. It was a mode of organized terror employed by groups like the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction to restore white supremacy in Texas and throughout the region."
It's not about hollywood movies. It's about real people dying by the hundreds in real lynchings that were based upon racial hatred.
Sure, he addressed the very issue. But that doesn't mean his take on the issue is right. I suspect Keith is an ignorant "celebrity," full of himself and willing to spout off whatever because he's a self-indulgent tuff guy red-neck wannabe. He's also echoing what a lot of people feel. There's too much bad stuff going on. We don't live in a safe society. If the society (law enforcement, government, educational systems) can't take care of the problem, then, hell, let's just do it ourselves. It's the American Taliban approach. Sure, it's dumb. But that doesn't mean the problems he's talking about aren't real. I just don't think he was intentionally calling for racial lynchings. He or Willy. On the other hand, when you look at certain crime statistics, you see an awful lot of minority names associated with them so hanging 'em high would result in "lynching" statistics (40:1 non-whites). But not exclusively. Still, the underlying problem and cultural frustration the song is expressing is what do we do about crime, and what do we do about justice? Republicans say punish, don't worry about prevention. Democrats say prevent. punish, and give chances for redemption. I vote for better economics and education. It's ultimately a class thing more than a racial thing, but it's SO hard to distinguish sometimes, and it's so hard to solve. I do know this: Obama is 1000% better suited to address it and lead this country toward resolution than is Sen. McStrange.
When I hear songs such as these and watch the sincerity of the bags of wind making these noises I often watch with amazement at their ignorance. I believe Toby Keith (and probably all those who don’t see the blatant racism behind the lyrics to this song) is ignorant of history, as Blumenthal succinctly points out. With this ignorance comes a defiant defensiveness, without which would lay bare his racist soul.
Ahhh, Toby Keith, a study in contrasts. This man talks about Obama not sounding 'black enough, sounding white' while he parades himself on the sidelines down in Norman, Okla. at Sooner football games. The same sidelines where black and white players stand side by side and work together. It would seem to me as this is a lesson lost on Toby. Or could it be that he simply found his economic niche around 9/11? Perhaps he is just demonstrating the human condition of ego followed up with greed.
Toby Keith Covel is from Oklahoma, folks, ... not Texas. That said, Oklahoma has all sorts of history of its own. Right about the time TK Covel's grandpappy was alive, the section of Tulsa Oklahoma known as Greenwood was razed. My father's side grew up in Oklahoma, ... and he never mentioned Greenwood. A quick read tells you why almost no one does.
http://www.geocities.com/anaxfiles/kosovo/artcl11.html
300 innocent Black Oklahomans killed in Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Toby in 1921. So close to Toby's home of Clinton, ... less than a half-days drive, ... and I'll bet he never knew of that massacre. It was forty years before he was born, of course. That "Texas Thang" in the song probably just sounds better.
Maybe talking about a rope and justice is something that ought to be left to judges and juries, and not drunken cowpokers and their beer-swilling horses. I love Oklahoma, and my father's kin. But I read about the massacre at Greenwood and I feel utter disgust and shame. Seems there was no justice at all in Oklahoma back in Toby's and my "grandpappy's" time.
A better article on the Tulsa Massacre and the Klan's activities.
http://www.tulsareparations.org/TulsaRiot.htm
He's just pissed off that in a few years, whites will be the minority in this country.
I have no rope, so he has little to fear from this liberal.
Whites make up over 70% of the population in this country. What, in your wildest imagination, makes you think that whites are going to be a minority in " a few years" ?
I guess making up things and putting them out there as facts isn't a tactic only of the Republicans, eh?
You don't read, do you, sweetie?
Do a search for the story, you might learn something.
The recent census report over this past weekend has declared the by 2040...whites will be the minority. Toby Keith may be young, he is not ignorant! Very much aware of the lyrics of his racists song. Didn't this come up while the presumptive republican nominee was on the same platform as TK...this is when McCain offered Cindy to compete in "Ms. Buffalo Chip" contest.
We either accept reality when presented with the preponderance of the facts or we are enticed by a few unsubstantiated sound bites that resonate with our values. That being said, I present the news backed up by the facts and not convenient sound bites.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08142008/news/nationalnews/2042_to_see_a_white_minority_124404.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=5575766
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html
You haven't been paying attention, friend. Whites WILL be a minority in the not-too-distant future.
You are wrong--it very a very simple claim to fact check
HuffPost's Pick
Lynching usurped constituional guarantees of trial by jury. Retaliation was rendered without due process, and those who executed these criminal acts, like toby Keith's granpappy, have not been dealt with by our legal system, After 911, America made Toby Keith's song a hit, because we were an injured and unwell nation. Toby's nostalgia for crimes, which remain unjustified does not help us heal. We are now under the administration of "lynchers", who deprive whomever they choose of constitutional protection. Our healing will come through restoring our justice system, and becoming the people we were before 911. It's time to get back up.
Thank you. Could not have said it better myself.
A prime example of what you are saying is Tulsa, 1921. A Black man is acused of touching a White woman in an elevator (later proven to be a lie). Nonetheless, with the aid of a local editorial that called for retribution, Whites took up arms and attacked the Black citizens in what had been known as the "Black Wall Street." By the time the invaders were through, scores of Black citizens were dead, including many (men and women) hung from light poles. The luck ones escaped, never to return.
In an official ruling by the state government, the fault for the attacks was laid at the feet of the victims. No one ever faced trial.
Lynchings were defacto legal in cases like this.
There was never anything romantic about hanging people. Even the officially sanctioned ones were ciruses, where people came with picnic baskets and ate cotton candy. It was a grand public event -- legal or otherwise.
To my way of thinking anyone who would vote for George W Bush twice is a crazy ignorant bigot, which just happens to be 50 percent of America, we still have a long way to go before we reach racial tolerance, hopefully until November.
Obama/Clark
Actually, it was 50% of VOTERS, which is not by any means 50% of Americans.
50% = crazy ,ignorant bigots + those heavily invested in the defense/weapons manufacturing industry and/or oil companies.
When stupid lowbrow mouthbreathing redneck white trash is your schtick, you have to play to your demographic. While, I am sure, not all of Keith's fans are stupid lowbrow mouthbreathing redneck white trash most of the SLMRWT are fans of Keith. Why, I bet even the president of the United States is a faan. W has personally signed more death warrants then the rest of the presidents combined. Ever wonder what he thinks when he reads, assuming he reads, the line attributed to Christ, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me." I assume George knows Christ had a position on the death penalty. Clue: it was verticle, on a cross.
I'm really amused that you bring God in to your discussion. So much for passing judgement on others, huh? Or is that another part of the bible you conveniently choose to ignore?
I believe that qualifies you as a bigot and a hypocrite, what say you?
If you bother to read it, it is Keith's lyric that brings God into the discussion in a sort of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" way.
Keith yearns for vigilante justice and you think I am being too judgemental. I reserve the right to pass judgement on those who favor mob rule.
For some people, being American means having the freedom to hate whomever you please, on the terms you choose, and nobody better have a GD thing to say about it. Toby Keith may be one of those people.
You know, this reminds me of one those little brats that chucks rocks at the lions in the zoo. He thinks it's funny the madder the lion gets. The lion just wishes the cage wasn't there............
Rowwwrrrrr!!!
The best way to deal with ignorant rednecks like Toby, is to face them head-on. I'm glad that you didn't back down from your original point - this guys deserves nothing but ridicule, and a swift boot in the ass.
How does that kind of talk make you any better than TK? You sound just like what the blogger wants us to think TK sounds all the time.
I think that was the point. Perhaps he should have used quotes. I believe the "swift boot" part is from one of TK's songs.
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