BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 10:45 AM

Colbert weighs in

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Apr 13 - 01:22 AM

Becky in Long Beach were you thinking about this when you chose these

Your second quote says that Americans are too ignorant to have a conversation about race. The third one implies that everyone is smart enough not to give offense by accident.

:-) Maybe we do need a conversation.

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Apr 13 - 12:48 AM

Yeah Guys, I've read several people commenting on those lines. I agree!

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 04:39 PM

There are some many thoughtful (and disparaging) analyses out there...

From Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic:
- Why 'Accidental Racist' Is Actually Just Racist

I can understand why an artist like Paisley would be attracted to an artist like LL Cool J. I can't for the life of me understand why he'd choose LL Cool J to begin "a conversation" to reconcile. Rap is overrun with artists who've spent some portion of their career attempting to have "a conversation." There's Chuck D. There's Big Daddy Kane. There's KRS-ONE. There's Talib. There's Mos Def. There's Kendrick Lamar. There's Black Thought. There's Dead Prez. And so on.

In an artform distinguished by a critical mass concerned with racism, LL's work is distinguished by its lack of concern. Which is fine. "Pink Cookies" is dope. "Booming System" is dope. "I Shot Ya" is dope. I even rock that "Who Do You Love" joint. But I wouldn't call up Talib Kweli to record a song about gang violence in L.A., and I wouldn't call up KRS-ONE to drop a verse on a love ballad. The only real reason to call up LL is that he is black and thus must have something insightful to say about the Confederate Flag.

The assumption that there is no real difference among black people is exactly what racism is. Our differences, our right to our individuality, is what makes us human. The point of racism is to rob black people of that right. It would be no different than me assuming that Rachel Weisz must necessarily have something to say about black-Jewish relations, or me assuming that Paisley must know something about barbecue because he's Southern.

- Against the 'Conversation on Race'

One of the problems with the idea that America needs a "Conversation On Race" is that it presumes that "America" has something intelligent to say about race. All you need do is look at how American history is taught in this country to realize that that is basically impossible.

I have had conversations with very well-educated people who, with a straight face, have told me that there are Black Confederates. If you ask a very well educated person how the GI Bill exacerbated the wealth gap, or how New Deal housing policy helped create the ghetto they very likely will not know. And they do not know, not because they are ignorant, stupid, or immoral, they do not know because they are part of country that has decided that "not knowing" is in its interest. There's no room for any sort of serious conversation when the basic facts of history are not accessible. ...

Paisley could have reached out and had a conversation with an artist who might actually challenge his worldview. ...

But acts would require a mind interested in something more than being told what it already knows. It would require an artist doing his job and exploring. It would require truly engaging a community, instead of haughtily lecturing it on how, precisely, it should react to great pain. It would require something more than mere reification. It would require something more than absolution. It would require talking to people who may not like you. It would require the rarest of things in this space where everyone wants to write, but no one wants to read--a truly curious mind.

From Alyssa Rosenberg at ThinkProgress:
What Brad Paisley And LL Cool J Don't Understand About Accidents In "Accidental Racist"

Most definitions of "accident" require that an incident that fits that description meet two criteria: that the event in question be both unintended and unforseeable. And it's characteristic of our conversations about race that when someone causes offense, they insist that they aren't culpable because their actions or speech were unintended, ignoring the question of possible foresight. It's a means of defending yourself that puts responsibility for offense on the person who is offended, painting them as paranoid, suspicious, and generally lacking in good faith, and that allows people who are careless about race to avoid actual responsibility for hurting others. And it's a defense that would be impossible for most people to make if they stepped back and weighed the question of whether, despite their intentions, their actions or speech could be foreseen to cause harm or summon up painful history.

Kim Ruehl at No Depression:
- When well-meaning topical music goes terribly wrong

What Paisley perhaps intended was to create a song which presented a conversation between White and Black, about letting go of the past and finding common ground to move forward as a unified front toward a more peaceful world.

What he wound up doing was writing a song which oversimplified one of the most violent and oppressive histories on American soil (overshadowed only by the way emerging white power in the New World treated - and continue to regard - Native Americans).

What he wound up doing was sounding as though he believes it's unfair for human beings now to bear the burden of history.

As a songwriter, Kim Ruehl has lots more to say from that perspective that might interest Mudcatters.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Bobert
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 10:35 AM

Yes, Jim, those are some weak lines...

Like I said, Paisley gets credit for his courage in engaging a conversation about race and given he is a country singer he couldn't go but so far without be black balled (like they did to the Dixie Chicks) but I'd loved for him to go a little further on the flag issue...

BTW, there was a guy who showed up one night at the Washington Post discussion board using the Confederate Flag as his handle, or whatever it's called and I took him to task, then complained to the Post and the flag has been taken down...

His stupid argument is the same old "Heritage not Hate" to which I responded, "Yeah, a heritage of slavery, Jim Crow and racism"...

Now back to the song...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 09:00 AM

The lyrics are here as well as a playable audio file:

http://rapgenius.com/Brad-paisley-accidental-racist-lyrics

(By the way, that's an interestingly-constructed website. Besides displaying the lyrics, it apparently allows users to post their own commentary on the lyrics. Click on any line of the lyrics and it will bring up someone's comment, plus other people's replies to that comment, etc. I was recently wishing we had something like that for, say, the State of the Union address—provided that the people making the comments had some expertise—but I digress.)

While I can see the value of a dialog, I have to say, some of this is rather weak. For example:

"If you don't judge my do-rag, I won't judge your red [Confederate] flag"

"If you don't judge my gold chains, I'll forget the iron chains"

I don't see the moral equivalency in those comparisons.

By the way, shouldn't this thread be in the music section? And I wish the title of the song had been put in the title of the thread.

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Bobert
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 08:52 AM

That was my point, JtS...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 08:15 AM

God Bless the Southerners and the descendants of the slaves. I pray that they forgive each other like in the song.

Its better than I could have written it. Much more clever anyway. But I couldn't write a song excusing the wearing of that flag.

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Bobert
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 08:09 AM

Whereas I don't think this song was written as good as it could have been, I give Brad Paisley kudos for having the courage to put it out...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 07:40 AM

more about the song.


http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/09/176677624/brad-paisleys-accidental-racist-sparks-at-least-one-dialogue?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130409

Subject: RE: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 01:57 AM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/wheelhouse-review-brad-paisley_n_3038795.html

Subject: BS: I can't walk a mile in your skin
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 01:44 AM

This is about a song but very political and certainly not traditional folk.

New Yorker on Accidental Racist

I like Brad Paisley. He writes witty songs with good hooks. He can play guitar and sings as well and most country stars.

He's done a couple of songs that are a lot more centrist than say Toby Keith.

But this new song Accidental Racist... WOW!! He's been called a racist and LL Cool J who raps on the song is probably going to be called a sellout or worse. But I think that maybe they are trying to build bridges. I hope so anyway.

Judge for yourselves.
New Yorker on Accidental Racist