Last week, I reported for the Huffington Post that country singer Toby Keith had performed a pro-lynching anthem on the Colbert Report, and would be playing the same song soon on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and a slew of nationally televised talk shows.
The lyrics of Keith's song, "Beer For My Horses," which I transcribed, could hardly be less explicit -- "Hang 'em high, for all the people to see." In my piece, I also noted the racially tinged nature of the song's video and the forthcoming movie that Keith's song inspired.
Toby Keith's latest: Obama "talks, acts, and carries himself as a Caucasian."
The response from right-wing blogs was swift and strident. Townhall.com whined that "The Liberal Lynching of Toby Keith" had taken place; Lonewacko claimed that Keith was actually "promoting lawful executions." And Keith found an avid defender in Robert Stacy McCain, the disgraced former Washington Times reporter and avowed neo-Confederate who once allegedly ranted in the middle of the Times newsroom that slavery was "good for the blacks and good for property owners."
The comments section of my post was immediately swarmed by right-wing trolls twisting themselves into contortions to defend the indefensible. A typical comment read: "I can't believe that this Max can't find something real to complain about in this crazy world... I think Max is the bigot -- he obviously hates country music, country singers and Southerners."
Describing Keith's over-produced truck commercial schmaltz as "country music" besmirches the dignified tradition established by Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, while insulting the innovative artists propelling the genre into the future, from Neko Case to Son Volt to my good friend Dave Bryan (hear his music here). At his best, Keith is Merle Haggard with a lobotomy. But that's beside the point.
The comments by the literally hundreds of trolls who leapt to Keith's defense are significant for only one reason: they reveal the extent to which the radical right has anointed Keith as a icon of its movement. Keith's schlock rock is the soundtrack of the culturally deprived australopithicenes who populate the cyber-caves of freeperland and comprise the movement's most fervent activists. As a bellicose chickenhawk who has risen from the ranks of the rural working class to become "White Trash With Money," Keith has carefully calibrated his image to fit the sensibility of his fans.
Now, Keith has trained his sights on Barack Obama, attacking him in language that startled even the notoriously reactionary radio jock Glenn Beck. During Keith's appearance on the July 30 broadcast of Beck's show, he remarked, "I think the black people would say he [Obama] don't talk, act or carry himself as a black person."
"What does that even mean?" the audibly shocked Beck replied.
"Well, I don't know what that means," Keith drawled, "but I think that that's what they would say. Even though the black society would pull for him I still think that they think in the back of their mind that the only reason he is in [the general election] is because he talks, acts and carries himself as a Caucasian."
How will Keith's fans explain away his remarks without rejecting the essential thrust of his argument? The comments section is open.
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I have to state that you have blown this video way out of porportion
This video came out , in what. 2005, 2006?
Max, the video has nothing to do with racism.
If you want to accuse Toby Keith of racism I suggest you reread some of Toby's earlier mantras.
This one in particular - Now, Keith has trained his sights on Barack Obama, attacking him in language that startled even the notoriousl
"Now, Max, this is a racist remark. "I think the black people would say he [Obama] don't talk, act or carry himself as a black person." Toby Keith said that.
Do you understand what you did wrong?
You attacked a song Toby co-authure
Troubled
Well said.
I think he walks, talks and carries himself as if he were a free man. Since when is it a crime to be at ease, to be able to speak intelligen
As an old white woman from the south I say to Obama, "Go for it". A lot of us willbe delighted to have a president with a brain in the White House. When I think of him I don't think black or white, I think competent, intelligen
The modern slaves are the Becks, the Limbaughs, the O'Reillys, at their corporate masters beck and call, totally without dignity. Their mothers should have washed their mouths out with soap; that way they would have had a taste of the old days.
toby obviously doesn't know much and should probably stay out of politics but he does represent and reflect a lot more people than one might think. red state america is alive and thriving. ignorance has become an american cultural trait in the eyes of the world. that's scary.
Toby Keith and your so called neo confederat
Why is a black criminal more evil and guilty than a white one that commits the same crime.....
Back in Texas, and other parts of the South, people of color know that this breed talks big, and drive great big trucks, when they don't need them because they are scared and feel so small, so they give them a wide berth, just as you would a wounded animal -- out of compassion for their fear. But Toby and Co. fit in well with the fearful Cheney and Bush, even as they were being pounded by the neocons who were against the minimum wage, the raising of benefits for their sons who made it back from Iraq, and so and and so on. They (so called neo confederat
Ahh, I see you continue to tow the line with the minions of the Republican party by calling Senator Obama the Messiah in your rant about others throwing around insults. How hypocritic
This is an article written by a white, college educated male, probably most of the posts are made by white, college educated males, especially those of the highest intoleranc
What I'm trying to say is:
Please, from a fellow Democrat who is NOT a white, college educated male, stop speaking for me and all people of different sex, color, religion, and/or social background and telling us all what we think, feel, and how life in America is for us. We are not that stupid, and thank goodness we are not all that intolerant of others from different areas or different background
Unless, of course, you think that the white, well educated male numbers are large enough to win a presidency ... than carry on.
whatever it takes to get you there.
OBAMA 08/12
Education is disrespect
So as I watched the opening of the Olympics I was mesmerized by the thousands of Chinese drumming and moving in complete synchrony and I felt a chill. They can put melamine in our dog food and lead paint on our pacifiers now, but imagine what they will do when they realize we are just plain stupid.
And/or racist, sexist, theist, etc, as long as you're a person with whom the majority of the American public would like to have a beer or a barbeque. We have turned into a nation of "low-infor
Keth makes southern white Americans look like hopelessly braindead racist cretins,
which is too bad, because not all of us white folks are that way, darnit!
And I am not!
With my white man's lips
I spit on Keith and his ilk.
Didn't they win and he lose?
Didn't he support the war and Bush and all the lies?
Now he's talking about Barack Obama?
Yawn...
As far as your nonsense about Jamaicans and Black Americans not getting along, do some history the Irish, Italians and Jews didn't get along for quite some time.
Get informed then think about the informatio
Toby Keith speaks like an ignorant, bigoted American.
What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street? Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep? What do you feel when you look in the mirror? Are you proud? How do you sleep while the rest of us cry? How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye? How do you walk with your head held high? Can you even look me in the eye And tell me why?
Dear Mr. President, Were you a lonely boy?Are you a lonely boy? How can you say No child is left behind? We're not dumb and we're not blind. They're all sitting in your cells While you pave the road to hell.
What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away? And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay? I can only imagine what the first lady has to say You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.
Let me tell you 'bout hard work Minimum wage with a baby on the way Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away Building a bed out of a cardboard box
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work
THANKS PINK
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I been hearin' his name all over the land.
Well, what is a vigilante man?
Tell me, what is a vigilante man?
Has he got a gun and a club in his hand?
Is that is a vigilante man?
Rainy night down in the engine house,
Sleepin' just as still as a mouse,
Man come along an' he chased us out in the rain.
Was that a vigilante man?
Stormy days we passed the time away,
Sleepin' in some good warm place.
Man come along an' we give him a little race.
Was that a vigilante man?
Preacher Casey was just a workin' man,
And he said, "Unite all you working men."
Killed him in the river some strange man.
Was that a vigilante man?
Oh, why does a vigilante man,
Why does a vigilante man
Carry that sawed-off shot-gun in his hand?
Would he shoot his brother and sister down?
I rambled 'round from town to town,
I rambled 'round from town to town,
And they herded us around like a wild herd of cattle.
Was that the vigilante men?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I've heard his name all over this land.