Accidental Racist by Brad Paisley (2013)

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LL Cool J (left) and Brad Paisley backstage during the 48th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards Sunday in Las Vegas.

Accidental Racist is a song by American country artist Brad Paisley, which generated controversy as discussing racism, particularly the song message showing Southern pride, including the Confederate flag. The song which features LL Cool J, is from Paisley’s ninth studio album, Wheelhouse (2013), written by Paisley, LL Cool J, and Lee Thomas Miller. [1]

Key Lyrics

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 coming 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 picking up the pieces, walking on eggshells, fighting 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 [2]

Controversy

The song Accidental Racist begins with a narrator’s explanation, which seems not like an apology to an African-American Starbucks barista, who was offended by the Confederate flag on his t-shirt. Paisley never resolves the tension in the song’s title, which is a contradiction in terms referring to the word “accidental.” The narrator is a proud Southern white man which trying to incorporate humility into his identity:

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 [3]

Paisley implied that the Confederate flag is merely a band logo refers to line:

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

While in fact, the flag, somehow, representd the side of the Civil War, which fought for slavery.

Without showing sorry, instead the song goes with defensive line, the dislike of “barista who wore a band t-shirt with confederate flag”

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 rewrite history Our generation didn't start this nation We're still pickin' up the pieces, walkin' on eggshells, fightin' over yesterday

The song still goes on with lyrics showing that people in the South still feel things have not been sufficiently resolved, while the war has ended over a century and a half ago. In fact, the aim of Reconstruction was to fix the South after the war. This seems to imply that don’t fight for the rights of slaves, if not wanting one’s part of the country burned to the ground.

hey called it Reconstruction, fixed the buildings, dried some tears We're still sifting through the rubble after 150 years [4]

Black Empowerment

The country singer defended that the song needed collaboration as he had no authority in terms of African-American perspective, "I can only speak as a white Southerner," he explained of LL's contribution. "One of the greatest moments of my songwriting life was taking him for a ride around town after touring the Ryman. I'm playing the song, and he's banging on the dashboard and saying, 'This is important. I'm in.' Then he wrote his entire part himself. And I told him, 'You can say whatever you want. You want to tell me I'm crazy? Tell me I'm crazy. There's nothing off limits for you. Whatever you want to say in this song, you say it.' And he did."

In an interview with Jay Leno on NBC’s The Tonight Show, Paisley learned the controversy of the song, 12 hours before the album was about to be released. The song which featured rapper LL Cool J, provides the perspective of a black northerner. Paisley also talked about the inspiration behind the song, as he thought a lot about racism and how to deal with such issues in country music combined with rap music, between two individuals in a loving and understanding way.

The singer also claimed that the video, which also has drawn a strong reaction, not belong to the country music, "was not mine." While he hasn't seen the video, he says that it was "sort of where a lot of the hate was coming from" and that whoever posted it didn't accurately portray the meaning behind the song.

"In the song, really what we're trying to do is explore what happens when two people have a dialogue," he says. "The entire album wheelhouse is meant to touch on some themes that I think aren't normally touched on in music. And in the context of this record, it makes a little more sense. But it feels like, when you take the song out of this record, it's sort of like 'What in the world? What got him on that?'" [5]

References

  1. Accidental Racist. wikipedia.org. Retrieved January 27, 2021
  2. Brad Paisley Accidental Racist. genius.com. Retrieved January 27, 2021
  3. Kellefa, Saneh. Brad Paisley’s Awkward and Earnest “Accidental Racis. April 9, 2013. newyorker.com. Retrieved January 30, 2021
  4. Brown, Adam Tod. The 10 Most Racist Moments from a Song About Ending Racism. April 10, 2013. cracked.com. Retrieved January 30, 2021
  5. Nordyke, Kimberly. Brad Paisley Explains Intentions Behind 'Accidental Racist': 'It Comes From a Good Place' (Video). April 10, 2013. hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved January 30, 2021