Good news everyone: We solved racism. We can all can go home now. That whole "black and white" thing? Fuhgeddaboudit. Thanks to Brad Paisley and LL Cool J, we're finally greeting the brave new dawn of a post-racial United States. While the rest of Americans were busy either hauling tail in their F-150s to Alabama concerts, or shopping the top spring collections of gold chains and do-rags, leave it to the "Country Singer" and "the Rapper" to heal our country's centuries-old wounds in the course of a song. If that sounded as stupefyingly reductive as the title of this article, read on; it all pales in comparison to Paisley and Mr. Ladies Love's new song, "Accidental Racist."
Paisley's latest record, "Wheelhouse," may have only came out April 9, but he's already one of the most talked-about modern country artists of the year. Of course, most of that attention is for all the wrong reasons. Specifically, his race baiting single with rapper LL Cool J, "Accidental Racist," which imagines a hypothetical conversation between a proud "White Man comin' from the Southland" and a "Black Yankee" in a Starbucks. Paisley was making the rounds Monday, prepared to defend the "controversial" track, appearing on "Ellen" where he claimed the song was merely an attempt to directly address racial tensions, and force people to ask questions. No one can fault him there; the song indeed begs many questions, mainly: Is there any other song in the last decade more nakedly exploitative of Southern and African-American stereotypes?
Let's give Paisley and LL Cool J some credit here. Both artists seem sincere, at the very least. Mr. Paisley sounds earnest enough when he sings, "I'm proud of where I'm from / And not everything we've done / And it ain't like you and me to rewrite history." Sure, okay, but the song goes off the rails at just about every other turn. The essence of Paisley's perspective amounts to little more than an apologist's rationalization for still lingering latent racism in the South, and a gross over simplification of just what it means to be a White Southern Man or an urban African-American from the North. Paisley can understand why his new black friend might be upset with the flag he's wearing on his chest, but remember, he sings, the South is still somehow bafflingly recovering from Sherman's march and the Reconstruction.
Proud "real" Southerners will likely point out that rural good ol' boys are unfairly branded as racists all the time, and there's certainly more than a rusted lining of truth to that. But the idea that just because Paisley praises the rebel flag, doesn't make him a racist, is pure fool's gold. I've been getting into the "heritage not hate" argument ever since my first day of high school in Texas, and while the Lone Star state might not technically be considered the South by some - it's like another country y'all - I think I got the gist of the logic behind flying the Confederate flag during my 24 years there. Paisley might not be a racist in the blunt, classical sense, but arguing that rocking the flag of the Confederacy on your t-shirt holds no more symbolism than a reverence for the South and Ronnie Van Zant is about as blissfully naive as someone wearing a swastika arm band and insisting it represents nothing but a deep love of Krautrock. Like it or not, the two are inextricable from their reprehensible pasts, no matter how much we'd like to gloss over the unfortunate bits. And oh do Paisley and LL Cool J gloss.
The rapper of "Mama Said Knock You Out" equates judging a do-rag with criticizing a Confederate flag; never mind that one is a fashion statement, and the other is a symbol of hundreds of years of oppression and bondage. Paisley, a native of West Virginia who
ostensibly embraces the Confederacy and Southern culture with wide-eyed fervor, also appears to know strikingly little about his home state, which - while it was divided in its allegiances - was a part of the Union during the civil war, not the Confederacy, and voted against secession.
Paisley's lyrics that the South is still caught between "Southern pride and Southern Blame," may in fact be his truest words in "Accidental Racist." We won't ever really escape the imprisoning dichotomy of South vs. North, or black vs. white until we can have a serious, sober conversation, and move beyond mere cliches. But while Paisley's song can't help but shove its head in the same sand that's been reinforcing this narrow point of view for the last century, and fails to progress the conversation, his music does provide a glimpse of hope. Even if hostility still remains between blacks and whites, there should be some racial harmony in agreeing "Accidental Racist" is one of most misguided attempts at uniting "Ebony and Ivory" in the history of music.