"Accidental Racist" and the Impotence of Good Intentions

I hadn't originally given it a thought for posting here, and I have other posts on many topics in the dry dock here, but TNC's entrance to the discussion on this Brad Paisley-LL Cool J collaboration has provoked me. (Plus I'm tired of only getting around to writing on things long after they're out of the immediate national or social attention. Just this once, I'm jumping in while it's still in the air.)

There's a lot to unpack in this whole situation, and others have gone through the song in ways I'm not willing to do here, so I'll key in on this train of thought: some commenters in his Tuesday post complained that TNC was too harsh on Paisley and LL Cool J, that they were well-intentioned in their efforts to reconcile and have "a conversation", they said. I can understand this defense; I think Paisley and LL thought they were helping.


I do think TNC is actually mistaken about the reasons for the collaboration: Paisley and LL have done kind of a home-and-home deal, appearing on each other's albums, and it was LL who initiated the whole thing, reportedly, anyway. So this does undercut TNC's point slightly (that, if you were going to have a serious discussion, perhaps LL isn't the rapper to call on; except that Paisley didn't really call him, rather they went into this together, or so the story goes), but he's still right about, well, all the rest.

I like Paisley (I promise, this is actually true), but simply running with LL and using LL to absolve himself of and confer black folks' approval for his waving the Confederate flag, rather than grappling with the flag's significance and offensiveness, is an act of racism. This doesn't mean Paisley is irredeemable; it does mean he needs to figure out why it's not just okay.

TNC's follow-up on Wednesday doesn't hold back (emphasis mine):

It did not have to be this way. Paisley could have reached out and had a conversation with an artist who might actually challenge his worldview...

But acts would require a mind interested in something more than being told what it already knows. It would require an artist doing his job and exploring. It would require truly engaging a community, instead of haughtily lecturing it on how, precisely, it should react to great pain. It would require something more than mere reification. It would require something more than absolution. It would require talking to people who may not like you. It would require the rarest of things in this space where everyone wants to write, but no one wants to read--a truly curious mind.

That cuts deep. But again, he's right. It would be one thing if their song offered any substantive discussion, but if you read the lyrics (which, lyrics-reading is the death knell for SO much music), it goes from mediocre to horrific real fast (emphasis mine, again):

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)

Instead of meaningful discussion, the song says "Let's let bygones be bygones" without addressing real suffering and disadvantage wrought at the hands of racism. And don't think for a second that LL Cool J is free of guilt here. As a friend pointed out, LL Cool J must be the worst negotiator in the history of the world: So, if you forgive black people for their dress and appearance, they will then in turn forgive white people for SLAVERY. Jeezy Pete! This song is a train wreck.

The ongoing national conversation on race isn't like a project for which your neighbor jumps in to lend a hand; it isn't like a meal in the kitchen where someone can offer to chop the vegetables while you mind the stove; it's not like brick-laying where every little brick contributed by everyone will be uniform and orderly. Paisley and LL can strive to strike a conciliatory tone with their song, and they have achieved that. But what they've also presented for our consideration are some lyrics that betray a deep lack of forethought and reflection on the subject. The national conversation is one in which great care and open minds are required; coming to the table without either of these in abundance will likely only result in further damage; I think that is all this song has accomplished. If they had presented the song as simply a fluff piece about "getting along" rather than a serious attempt at addressing the issue, I'd be more willing to cut them some slack.

A last point. Paisley and LL are both married men, so they should know: good intentions alone can't save if you eff up. When I (regularly, inevitably) step in it here at home, I can pout and argue, "But I meant well!" (and God knows I do; or just ask Sharon, haha); or I can choose to re-evaluate, to re-think, and to try harder. I wish Paisley and LL would do this; I am rooting for them to do this. But I doubt they will.