Accidentally Racist

This is a very touchy subject to talk about. I've had many conversations that turned ugly when the word "racist" comes in. In class we listened to the song "Accidental Racist" by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J and then watched news reports about the song. One was of a circle of people yelling and complaining about it and the other was the View ladies squawking about the song and eating chips.

The song is basically about the Brad saying that he just wants to put all the past racism and hate behind him and move on and try to be friends but also not come off as racist to the black people that he meets. LL's part is about not being sure if he can trust what Brad is saying, but also that he'd like to put it behind him too and move on and try not to live in the past. There were a few lines about forgiving the iron chains and forgetting the gold chains, that a black anchor or spokesperson didn't like in the CNN clip. He sort of freaked out about it and in my opinion kind of played the race card and didn't really take the real message from the song. The ladies from the View, however, agreed with the song and said it was a good mix of both sides and a way to try and mend the tough strands of the situation of racism. This is where I stand on the matter.

I can understand how people might get up in arms about the song, but I mean hey at least Brad and LL are trying! They aren't just sitting by and letting all the issues and touchy topics engulf them. They embraced their situation and tried to at least get the message out that to put it behind them. I totally agree. I honestly feel that both sides play the race card WAY too much anymore. History is a powerful tool and something everyone should learn from, but that's just it. We need to learn from it and fix it for the future and if all we do is dwell on it and cherry pick out situations to further our thoughts and sides on the matter then we'll never get anywhere and there will always be hate. I for one do not need anymore hate in my heart. And the world certainly doesn't need it either.

There were a lot of generalizations made in the song and people didn't really agree with them because they said not many "real" people wear chains around their neck and such. And I can understand that, but I mean, that is just basically taking the song at face value and not really understanding the deeper meaning to the song. I mean, it's country music, so they can't have deep unknown metaphors about racism in their songs, they have to give clear examples so the listeners can understand what's going on. I just think that people are basically being racist about the song when it's trying to say that they shouldn't be. 

We need to learn from our mistakes, realize all that has gone on in the generations since and get past it all so that we can work towards a peace filled world. This calls for a line from my favorite movie, The Lion King, "Hakuna Matata."