Darth Wong wrote:SancheztheWhaler wrote:Darth Wong wrote:
In the song, he actually refers to names of fictionalized cowboys. You're just being deliberately obtuse.
Because of course Beer For My Horses is a
factual account of hanging someone, right, and not a work of fiction? This matters how, exactly?
It doesn't matter whether it's fictional; it is pining for the "good old days" of Texas. How does your objection affect that criticism?
You got caught in yet another The South Sucks/America Sucks/Country Music Sucks/White People Are Racist diatribes with no leg to stand on. You could just admit that the song itself isn't racist, has nothing to do with race, and is simply about righting wrongs without seeing bad guys get away. Instead you contort a simple song about frontier justice into a discourse on racism in the Old West. Heaven forbid an arrogant jackass like you admit he's wrong and that he might, just might, be reading too much into a song.
You don't even know what my argument is, do you?
PS. I grow weary of your ad-hominem vendetta bullshit. Not only is it against the rules, but I have been arguing with you throughout this whole thread without a single mention of any previous argument we've had on the subject. You are not exempt from the rules, asshole.
What, I point out that you launched into your default America Sucks!/South is Racist! diatribe and that's a vendetta? Until this last point I never attacked you, just your arguments, so how is that ad hominem? I guess when somebody is dead on target your skin isn't nearly as thick as it would appear. For that matter, have we ever argued about racism in America or country music before? If we have, I sure as hell don't recall it.
Here's your original post, so I can address it specifically and you won't accuse me of not knowing your argument:
Darth Wong wrote:"Back in my day, son" in Texas means a lot of things, many of them racially charged.The fact is that anyone who pines for the "good old days" in the South must surely know how awful those days were for minorities, and must not have a problem with that.
Come on, when some white guy says that he wishes he were back in the good old days of the South, what do you think?
In the first place, the song is talking about one specific aspect of "back in my day," that being that criminals were dealt with swiftly and harshly. At no point in the song is there any lyric supporting a return to the social system of Texas and the deep south. There is a reference to hanging people in trees, but he's talking about criminals, not innocent black people. Did the song really need to say "round up all of those bad boys, but not innocent black people, because lynchings were bad, and hang them high in the trees" to make the point clear?
Secondly, when someone yearns for a return to the "good old days," why should we assume they want things exactly as they were in reality? Since Toby Keith himself wasn't alive in the "good old days," wouldn't it make more sense to assume that he's picturing an idealized version of the "good old days?"
Third, why wouldn't you assume Toby Keith's version of the "good old days" is an idealized version, such as in Leave it to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show, or Gunsmoke (he specifically references Gunsmoke in I Should Have Been a Cowboy)?
Fourth, let's apply Occam's Razor to this song. Look at the lyrics; they're simplistic, feel good, bad people will get what's coming to them macho bullshit. There's nothing overtly racist about them. The simplest assumption is that the song is nothing more than macho chest beating about criminals being dealt with swiftly and harshly. So why should we accept your convoluted argument about hidden meanings and racist undertones?
Fifth, are there any other Toby Keith songs that advocate or even hint at racism? I'm not enough of a Toby Keith fan to know much more than his #1 hits, but I've listened to "Should've Been a Cowboy," "How Do You Like Me Now?!," "I'm Just Talkin' About Tonight," "I Wanna Talk About Me," "My List," "Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue," "Who's Your Daddy?," "Beer for My Horses," "I Love This Bar," "American Soldier," and "As Good as I Once Was" enough to know that the general gist of Toby Keith songs is:
1. America is awesome
2. He's a redneck who likes redneck things, like hanging out in bars, fishing, and redneck girls
3. Most songs are somewhat tongue in cheek and not to be taken altogether seriously
Funny thing, looking at the whole of Toby Keith's songs, I don't really see anything there that suggests racism, support for lynching, or a desire to return to the social structure of the old south. But why should we default to the simplest answer, when we can instead attribute to Toby Keith racism, support for lynching black people, and "calling out Obama for acting white?" The fact that he's done none of these things is irrelevant when compared to the fact that he's from Oklahoma, white, a redneck, and a country singer. CLEARLY, he's a racist.
