Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Toby Keith Promotes Pro-Lynching Song and Movie

From Think Progress

Last night, country singer Toby Keithappeared on the Colbert Report to promote his toby.gifnew movie, Beer for My Horses. The movie is based off his song by the same name, which he performed on the show — and whose lyrics promote vigilante-style hangings of anyone considered “wicked” or “evil”:

Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad
boys
Hang them high in the street for all the people to see that

Max Blumenthal notes that in Keith’s “Grandpappy’s” day, “3,437 African-Americans were lynched in the United States, mostly in the heart of Dixie.” Blumenthal also remarks on the racial undertones in the song’s video; the movie trailer depicts a “Mexican guy” who deals drugs and kidnaps Keith’s character’s girlfriend.

2 comments:

  1. Hi! Not sure where Max Blumenthal gets his figures, but the number of African-Americans lynched in the US has been put at anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000.

    I thought you might like to know that Lisanne McT from Found In Brooklyn stopped by my blog, and she is not the same Lisanne that you see on Flickr! More here.

    Hope you're well.

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  2. Maybe the number depends on "Grandpappy's" day, as opposed to his "pappy's" day. Toby Keith is a windbag, at any rate. Believe it or not, there are some Country music fans who don't like the guy because of his over the top jingoistic attitude.

    Interesting about another Lisanne in Brooklyn. It's an unusual name. Lisanne McT referred to the other Lisanne as taking pictures of "junk." I don't know if that was meant pejoratively, or whether junk is a benign word of the yoots of today, but I really like Lisanne's Flickr photo stream. I mean, where else am I going to find out what happened to the Key Food on Ave. P after 40 years?

    By the way, you're right about the Canadian politeness attitude. It's sort of a distant cousin of the Southern hospitality concept. I must to back to your entry and elaborate.

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