Accidental Racist

I don't think there can be someone known as an "accidental racist." I do believe that we all make mistakes, and perhaps have grown up in a place that has not allowed for entire racial understanding and sensitivity. I think perceptions based on our backgrounds, education, and upbringing are entirely normal, and that many have not been taught about the racist institutions built into our culture and how to combat them; perhaps this makes someone a racist by choice or a racist by psyche and nurture, but there is no accident about what behaviors you choose. 

Part of living in a community, living as part of a larger, interconnected society, is knowing how to live WITH community. This involves respecting one another. Racism is ingrained into American society, but that doesn't mean we need to act on it. 

I heard about Brad Paisley's new song, "Accidental Racist," on The Colbert Report. While the segment was comedy gold, I am truly horrified that the song is real. The song is implicitly racist, despite the narrator singing that he wants to bridge the divide between whites and blacks. In the lyrics, it is the black man serving the white man coffee, a white man who knows the full meaning and history behind the confederate flag, but despite these implications, chooses to wear it in public because he's a "Skynyrd fan." This is not accidental. This is a choice. Bigotry and hatred is always a choice, and alienating people with uncomfortable symbols of superiority, history, etc, simply because you "like the design," for example. The lyrics are filled with assumptions about racial relations and the typical African-American lifestyle. 

Even worse, LL Cool J features in the song. I can't imagine a sum of money large enough to convince him to sing the demeaning lyrics, including "if you don't judge my gold chains, I'll forgive the iron chains." As Colbert surmises, "That's a pretty good deal, Paisley. LL will forget 250 years of enslavement if you accept his taste in accessories." 

The song misses the entire conversation about racial and cultural sensitivity and veers off into a racist and offensive place. Paisley claims to want an open dialogue with African-Americans and for both to be understood, but cannot give up his pride in the way he was raised, nor let go of racist generalizations and stereotypes such as black men being from the hood, wearing "saggy pants", "do-rags", and "gold chains." This song is a product of him, and, in fact, the song seems so unaware of the demeaning and one-sided dialogue, that perhaps it truly is "accidental." 

Colbert changes the tone, however, and gives us something to laugh at. You can check out the whole clip here. Be sure to watch to the end to catch Colbert's spoof of "Accidental Racist," what he calls "OopsieDaisy Homophobe." 

--Megan