“Accidental Racist” may not be understandable if you're not from the South — but it's no more defensible if you are.
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Source: garyckarntzen.deviantart.com
The message of Brad Paisley's new collaboration with LL Cool J, "Accidental Racist," seems to be: It's complicated. If you're not from the South you couldn't possibly understand the Confederate flag's enduring popularity, and if you are, there are no easy answers. And that the solution should be for both sides to move on and stop letting yesterday use up too much of today.
Furthermore, the lyrics may seem cloying, but that's because you're not from around here. After all, as Paisley sings in the chorus, "our generation didn't start this nation." Let's put the past behind us when it comes to symbols of the past... or something. As LL Cool J puts it, "If you don't judge my gold chains / I'll forget the iron chains."
So what's the truth about the Confederate flag? The rectangular version that we're all familiar with, also known as the rebel or Dixie flag, was a battle flag used by a handful of units during the American Civil War. It didn't historically represent the Confederate States of America, and wasn't the national Confederate flag during the war. The flag became more prominent in the 20th century, when some Southern military units during WWII used it in battle. It rose in both popularity and racist undertones during the '50s and '60s when Southerners who opposed desegregation adopted it as a symbol of the South's resistance to the politics of the North. The flag has also been adopted as a symbol by hate groups such as the Neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
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Brad Paisley performing at the ACM Awards in Las Vegas on April 3, 2011.
Via: Ethan Miller / Getty Images
The South's opposition to abolition, and later support of apartheid, is part of Southern history, and one that the flag is inexorably tied to. There's no question that acknowledging that past is part of moving past it. Becoming more complex in our understanding of Southern history is one way that the South can defy negative assumptions about its culture, and foster a real sense of pride — not just for the past, but for the present as well.
Is that what Paisley's song is attempting to do? Critics have said that the song is just plain racist, while others say it was well-intentioned, but awkward in execution. And there are the people who object to the idea that he should be "apologizing" for anything.
Regardless of the quality of the "Accidental Racist," there's no question that Paisley has cojones. Now the backlash-to-the-backlash has begun, and some have praised his authenticity. It's true: by country music standards, this take is downright nuanced. It's certainly a step up from Blake Shelton's "Kiss My Country Ass" ("Tearin' down a dirt road / Rebel flag flyin' ... If you got a problem with that, ha ha! / You can kiss my country ass"). In comparison, Paisley seems to be expressing a difficult truth, and singing from the heart about a difficult topic.
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