I'm No Fan of Toby Keith

Evidently, the country music singer Toby Keith made a recent appearance on the Stephen Colbert Show last night. Admittedly, I have not watched Stephen Colbert, not for any other reason than I just don't have the time to watch the show regularly.



Keith performed a song last night called, "Beer for My Horses." This blog discusses the appearance and a little bit about the song.




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/toby-keiths-pro-lynching_b_115526.html


Here are the lyrics:

Well a man come on the 6 o'clock news

said somebody's been shot

somebody's been abused

somebody blew up a building

somebody stole a car

somebody got away

somebody didn't get to far

yeah they didn't get to far

Grand pappy told my pappy back in my day, son

A man had to answer for the wicked that he'd 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 Justice is the one thing you should always find

You got to saddle up your boys

You got to draw a hard line

When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune

And we'll all meet back at the local saloon

And we'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing

whiskey for my man,

beer for my horses

We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds

too much corruption and crime in the streets

It's time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground

Send 'em all to their maker and he'll settle 'em down

You can bet he'll set 'em down

Cause Justice is the one thing you should always find

You got to saddle up your boys

You got to draw a hard line

When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune

And we'll all meet back at the local saloon

And we'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing

whiskey for my man,

beer for my horses

whiskey for my men,

beer for my horses

He knew

Justice is the one thing you should always find

You got to saddle up your boys,

You got to draw a hard line

When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune

And we'll all meet back at the local saloon

And we'll raise up our glasses against evil forces

Singin' whiskey for my man,

beer for my horses

Singing whiskey for my man,

beer for my horses.

Here's the irony. The song claims to be about justice. "Justice is the one thing you should always find." And, it claims, "It's time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground." But, in reality those who lynched in the old South were the true "outlaws." And, lynching a man, who under our justice system is deemed to be "innocent until proven guilty," deprives him of justice. Lynching therefore is an act of injustice rather than justice.

Toby Keith will probably make lots of money on this song because it taps into some of the deepest fears of white America and I suspect that many of his fans will love this song. But, this song is about lynching. And lynching was one of the darkest sins of the Old South. Rather than glorify the practice in a song, Toby, you ought to be repentant for the acts of your "Grandpappy" and be willing to admit the sin.