Accidental Racist
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 13th, 2013
Good morning!
Hi Lia: I hear you. This one is for you. Hafa Adai.
‘Accidental Racist’: Read the Lyrics So You Don’t Have to Hear Them
Here are the transcribed words to Brad Paisley and LL Cool J’s song, if you can’t bring yourself to listen.
If you’re like many music fans, you’re curious about the debate surrounding Brad Paisley and LL Cool J’s “Accidental Racist” — but you don’t want to actually listen to the song, thanks to a perfectly rational fear of country-rap hybrids.
So to help you with your debating points, here are the transcribed lyrics of the song, sans music. You aren’t missing much — the music has a slow, whiny quality you probably wouldn’t enjoy, and a weak drum beat extended to hip-hop fans like a wilted olive branch.
As for the lyrics: Yes, it’s just a song, and it isn’t up to Paisley and a “NCIS: Los Angeles” star to resolve all of our country’s racial issues. But we suspect Dolly Parton and Jay-Z would do a better job than this. There’s a lot to shake your head about in the lyrics to “Accidental Racist,” including:
-The song opening with Paisley being “waited on” by a black Starbuck’s employee who gets offended because the narrator innocently threw on a shirt that morning that just happened to have a Confederate flag on it. We know: There’s a lot to work with in that intro alone.
-How it equates wearing a do-rag (a race-neutral, convenient fashion choice) with wearing a Southern flag (hotly disputed symbol of the Confederacy and, to many, slavery)
-Cool J saying, “If you don’t judge my gold chains, I’ll forget the iron chains.” First, for the obvious reason, but also because Talib Kweli did the chains analogy much better a decade ago.
Interestingly, Cool J is touring this summer with Public Enemy. Wonder what Chuck D thinks of this.
Anyway, here are the lyrics. Have fun debating them with Confederate-flag wearing cowboy- hatted dudes and doo-ragged, gold-chained baristas alike. (Wait — you never come across either of these living cartoons? How interesting.)
“Accidental Racist”
Paisley:
To the man that waited on me at the Starbucks down on Main, I hope you understand
When I put on that t-shirt, the only thing I meant to say is I’m a Skynyrd fan
The red flag on my chest somehow is like the elephant in the corner of the south
And I just walked him right in the room
Just a proud rebel son with an ‘ol can of worms
Lookin’ like I got a lot to learn but from my point of view
I’m just a white man comin’ to you from the southland
Tryin’ to understand what it’s like not to be
I’m proud of where I’m from but not everything we’ve done
And it ain’t like you and me can re-write history
Our generation didn’t start this nation
We’re still pickin’ up the pieces, walkin’ on eggshells, fightin’ over yesterday
And caught between southern pride and southern blame
They called it Reconstruction, fixed the buildings, dried some tears
We’re still siftin’ through the rubble after a hundred-fifty years
I try to put myself in your shoes and that’s a good place to begin
But it ain’t like I can walk a mile in someone else’s skin
‘Cause I’m a white man livin’ in the southland
Just like you I’m more than what you see
I’m proud of where I’m from but not everything we’ve done
And it ain’t like you and me can re-write history
Our generation didn’t start this nation
And we’re still paying for the mistakes
That a bunch of folks made long before we came
And caught between southern pride and southern blame
Cool J:
Dear Mr. White Man, I wish you understood
What the world is really like when you’re livin’ in the hood
Just because my pants are saggin’ doesn’t mean I’m up to no good
You should try to get to know me, I really wish you would
Now my chains are gold but I’m still misunderstood
I wasn’t there when Sherman’s March turned the south into firewood
I want you to get paid but be a slave I never could
Feel like a new fangled Django, dodgin’ invisible white hoods
So when I see that white cowboy hat, I’m thinkin’ it’s not all good
I guess we’re both guilty of judgin’ the cover not the book
I’d love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air
But I see that red flag and I think you wish I wasn’t here
Paisley and Cool J (Cool J in parentheses):
I’m just a white man
(If you don’t judge my do-rag)
Comin’ to you from the southland
(I won’t judge your red flag)
Tryin’ to understand what it’s like not to be
I’m proud of where I’m from
(If you don’t judge my gold chains)
But not everything we’ve done
(I’ll forget the iron chains)
It ain’t like you and me can re-write history
(Can’t re-write history baby)
Oh, Dixieland
(The relationship between the Mason-Dixon needs some fixin’)
I hope you understand what this is all about
(Quite frankly I’m a black Yankee but I’ve been thinkin’ about this lately)
I’m a son of the new south
(The past is the past, you feel me)
And I just want to make things right
(Let bygones be bygones)
Where all that’s left is southern pride
(RIP Robert E. Lee but I’ve gotta thank Abraham Lincoln for freeing me, know what I mean)
It’s real, it’s real
It’s truth
********
I HOPE the weekend is off to a good start! Blog me.
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April 14th, 2013 at 8:17 am
Michelle, I couldn’t get in to say that that song sucked. How one compares a black person wearing a do rag to a person wearing a shirt with a flag that symbolizes the belief that whites have the right to enslave OTWs simply because of the color of their skins is ridiculous.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:19 am
Despite the persistent pay gap and plenty of evidence that we need better laws to address pay discrimination, Republicans in Congress seem perfectly content to sit by and do nothing. Last year, Senate Republicans killed the Paycheck Fairness Act with a filibuster and just yesterday House Republicans blocked a move by Democrats to force a vote on the bill.
Luckily, there is a procedure that can allow the minority in the House to get a vote on a bill over the objections of the majority. If 218 members of the House sign a petition, then Speaker Boehner has to allow vote. In order to try and move the bill, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) launched just such a petition. All we need is about 20 Republicans to stand up for women and equal pay in order to get a vote on this important bill.
BOTTOM LINE: If women aren’t getting equal pay for equal work then they aren’t truly equal. It’s time for Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:26 am
The republicans have shown that they are as low as they come when it comes to saying disgusting things about people they don’t like or who are their political opponents, so why are we surprised about what Ann Coutler said about Megan McCain. Coulter is a guttersnipe to use an old time term. She is a very sick person. She is as tasteless as she is vile.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:28 am
The white racists have destroyed our country. They voted for the jokers we now have in Congress. That’s white America for you.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:30 am
The only reason Ann Coulter says these absolutely over the top. hyperbolic, ridiculous statements is because White racist AMERICANS PAY ATTENTION WHEN SHE DOES IT.
She makes money off of being so hateful.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:30 am
Ann is a vile and disgusting relic, who will join hannity, rush, and all of the rest of the loathsome cadavers that populate today’s air, in their rush to the grave of irreverence.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:39 am
I agree with you Davis. The fact that he had the flag says as much about him as his claim he “accidentally” put it on. If I owned a shirt with a swastika on it, that would say as much about me as when I chose to wear it.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:42 am
Let me get this straight the song compares the white boy symbol of fighting to continue to a black man wearing a do rag. Only white pieces of shit would find that okay. But then we have a lot of them, I remember when they proposed George Wallace as a presidential option for the country.
White america has always looked the other way when one of their bigots is operating in the public arena.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:48 am
I’m white but I know there is no comparison to someone wearing a gold chain to one wearing iron chains. That is a song that makes a mockery of one group’s experience.
Basically the song portrays us whites saying our uncomfortableness with the choice of a black man’s attire balances off our enslaving, raping, murdering and terrorizing his people is ludicrous, but what is even more disgusting is the rush by my race to see something okay about the comparison.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:54 am
That line “RIP Robert E Lee, but I gotta thank Abraham Lincoln for freeing me… know what I mean?” – an actual line from Accidental Racist.
What the fuck? Only a white boy could accept that. I would love to hear some white say that about the Japanese general who led the attack on Pearl Harbor and that only killed a few hundred americans. The Civil War waged to continue slavery killed millions.
RIP? Rest in Hell would be more like it. I have lost all respect for that Tom LLfuckhim. Comparing that murder to Abraham Lincoln, only an insane white boy could do it.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:56 am
Let’s just forgive Hitler in a song too.
I found this in the linked article and just had to repost it here:
“Comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted: “I can’t wait for Brad Paisley & LL Cool J’s next single: “Whoopsy Daisy, Holocaust, My Bad”"
April 14th, 2013 at 8:58 am
The boobs are at it again. The South fought to be free from northern dominance. Just because slavery was a right we didn’t want the north to tell us to end doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have eventually ended it.
I can guarantee to you this, if we had won our independence you would see a boob as our president.
April 14th, 2013 at 8:58 am
Whatever their intentions, the execution of the song is dreadful, stupid, and offensive
April 14th, 2013 at 9:00 am
Great Point Nelson.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:01 am
exactly! Nelson.
i mean, if a southern guy is not racist, he does NOT have to go around apologizing to bunch of northern liberals for their mistaken notion that he is
April 14th, 2013 at 9:10 am
It is not about the individual person being racist or not. It is about the perception of white Southerners being viewed as racist especially if they admire any aspects of the Southern culture Some Southerner are sensitive to issues of race and carry a level of deep shame for their forebears who supported the institution of slavery, Jim Crow laws and resistance to civil rights and desegregation.
But in this song “Accidental Racist” Paisley believe he should be exonerated from the past sins of his Southern heritage yet he wants to wear a symbol of the Old South and the KKK by displaying Confederate Flag.
As Southerner, I can’t offer Paisley any sympathy for being called a racist if he he views the flag more important than respecting our sense of humanity. I mean if it was a swastika on that shirt and the person was a jew who this song was about would it be as acceptable? I doubt it.
If it was a shirt with the rising sun and it was a Japanese american comparing it to some white person dressing different from what he was used to how much howling would you be hearing from every white person in the nation.
That song represents white hypocrisy at best and really just white washing the evil my race exercised over black americans.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:13 am
I felt the outrage – thank all of you that have expressed your outrage – I thiught I was out there by myself.
My birth state SC still celebrates the Confederate flag and the Confederacy as a state holiday May 10 every year. I can’t handle it.
I do a drive thru SC as quickly as possible. I can’t forget when it’s still there being celebrated.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:15 am
“If you forget the gold chains, I’ll forget the iron chains.”
I love how in the US we’re supposed to “never forget” 9/11, no one ever tells Jewish people to “just get over” the Holocaust. Yet, slavery and Jim Crow, which are still very much real issues that are in play and effect black people daily we’re supposed to just ignore because it makes some white people uncomfortable.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:15 am
LL Cool J isn’t telling anyone to forget slavery either – just that it doesn’t have to dictate race relations 150 years later.
Apparently you and Touré both fail to comprehend symbolism. Do you think he’s also literally asking you to forget that he’s wearing jewelry?
April 14th, 2013 at 9:17 am
I don’t blame blacks for their outrage over the lyrics in the song by L.L. Cool J. What an insult to all the slaves including my ancestors.
It’s stupid. What do you expect from L.L. Cool J, he’s an insensitive Republican who forgot the humiliation and suffering his people went through.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:24 am
Mark, you obviously belong to that third of the white race that are apologist for that first third racist batch of your race. And oh yes the memory of slavery does have to dictate race relations 150 years later because it still exists.
You don’t get around much, do you? This nation has seen crimes involving black men and chains in the last 20 years. And it remains a powerful symbol (and so does that racist flag) of a dark part of our reality…
Slavery may have been made illegal but it didn’t end it; heck, it has been extended to other minority groups. That is the reality of where we are as a nation whether or not some want to see it or accept it.
Frankly, I’m sick of your kind attempting to look the other way or rationalizing the sick racist acts your race commits every day.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:25 am
Greatest mystery of all-time” “Blacks should forget slavery while whites embrace and reflect on the nostalgia of the civil war with re-enactments and the wearing of the rebel flag.” Yeah, that sounds fair. Fair & typical!
April 14th, 2013 at 9:43 am
Does Milk Hurt the Health Benefits of Tea?
Depending on your particular culture and taste, adding milk to your tea may be common or unusual.
But that tiny, seemingly insignificant decision may impact your health more than you might think.
You may recall that a 2007 study found that using cow’s milk in black tea may cancel out some of the tea’s key health benefits. Well now, another study—this one from 2012—shows that adding cow’s milk or even soy milk to green tea may also have a negative effect on health.
If you’re a tea drinker, pay close attention…
BAD MOOS
The earlier study that tackled this topic looked specifically at the effect of cow’s milk on black tea.
Researchers found that drinking black tea—without milk—significantly increased the ability of the subjects’ arteries to accommodate changes in blood flow. But this beneficial effect was not seen at all in either the control group (that drank boiled water) or the tea-with-milk group.
In other words, drinking the tea with milk completely prevented the subjects from getting this particular cardiovascular benefit from the tea.
How come? Tea contains catechins, compounds that help blood vessels relax. Milk, however, contains proteins known as caseins that can inhibit this benefit of tea, probably by combining with the catechins. This is true of all types of cow’s milk, regardless of the fat content. Talk about udder disappointment!
WHAT ABOUT SOY MILK? AND GREEN TEA?
Another more recent study was performed, by a separate set of scientists, to see whether soy milk would blunt key health benefits of green tea.
Unfortunately, it did! Those researchers found that when subjects drank green tea with soy milk or with cow’s milk, both types of milk reduced the bioavailability of certain catechins, compared with drinking the green tea with no milk (the control).
When bioavailability is reduced, the body can’t absorb as many of the beneficial compounds.
Source: Mario Lorenz, PhD, senior scientist, department of cardiology and angiology, Charité Medical University, Berlin, Germany.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:45 am
Beautifully put Nate and it just goes to show us the hypocrisy of some in our society. I always tell those who want us to forget and move on that we would if they stop acting like we are still living in their good old days.
April 14th, 2013 at 9:51 am
Hafa Adai, Thanks Michelle, I completely understand the comments about this attempt to gloss over the horror whites committed against African americans. The song is pure crap.