Way overreaction to a stupid song. Those pics are not even necessary to pull out over a trifle of a song as this.

Way to look like a douche bag Alternet.

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I agree wit da op.

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disagree with the comments above; that is.

for three reasons:
1. I was raised in the south, was schooled in southern white culture, have a large family still there, recently visited and understand that the mentality is stuck in segregation and hate - and they truely have no understanding that they are.

2. These people in the south vote in national elections.

3. This "song" and "artist" is on a multitude of national stages and media platforms, backing up the hatred this culture is trapped in.

If there was such a thing as solidarity amongst progressive america, all these outlets and advertisers allowing this "song" and "artist" to spread this hate would be boycotted.

by I'm a Utopian, eh?

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as well as a racist. I've heard him make other comments. He's loved by Bill-O the Clown and on his show regularly.

I wrote Colbert an email and asked him not to invite Toby Keith back on his show.

The above poster was right... this is still the culture of the white south. It's not a joke, and not to be taken lightly. Remember Jena 6. Remember the white Secret Service agent at the Secret Service Training facility that left a noose for a black trainee to find. These are powerful messages. They aren't to be seen in a vacuum. They MEANT these to be a threat.

What kind of person would look back at the days of lynching with fondness??? Hell, maybe we better find out what recording label he's on and send them an email, too. Let me check into that... I will come back and post the link.

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I wonder if Stephen Colbert ever had Natalie Maines, of the Dixie Chicks, on his program? Diametrically opposed to Toby Keith, he hates them. I understand a member of Congress wants to honor Toby Keith as a Great Patriot.

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broke a single ethical mandate from their Christian upbringing. Its only been fairly recently that it got to be illegal to kill indians.

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First and foremost, I'd like to say that I dislike Toby Keith. Why? Because he's a country music singer. I hate country music, all of it (yes, that includes the dixie chicks, having good politics doesn't make their music good, unfortunately).

But this article is moronic. Not the portions of the song, that were bolded:

Grandpappy 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

Now do a "where's Waldo". Find everything in there, that refers to a black person. Thats correct, there's NOTHING THERE!

This song, specifically refers to western justice, where a man IS ANSWERING FOR THE WICKEDNESS HE HAS DONE.

Pardon me, but I just don't think that black men are all wicked. Nor do I think the song was about it.

Yes, people lynched blacks during the 60s. That including hangings. But not only were those not the first hangings in history, they weren't the most prevelent hangings.

Blacks don't have a monopoly on being hung. And it is racist to imply that they do.

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It's 'just a song' - no different in content and intent than some of the 'Rap' crap that's out there! Mr. Blumenthal get your head out of wherever it's at!

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This is a convenient myth that northerners have been fond of wrapping themselves in since the Civil War: that violent racism is/was an exclusively a southern matter. There were plenty of slaveholders in the north, and plenty of lynchings in the north, now conveniently forgotten. I was born and raised in the north and heard from friends and family almost daily racist remarks, and there's no shortage of it even now. It absolves one of moral liability to simply find and accuse another. It's not us, it's them. We love to bring up Tienanmen in China but we have forgotten the phone-book-length list of America's moral transgressions, like the Kent State murders of protesting students in the 70s, and as another person reminded us, the wholesale slaughter and dispossession/robbery of Native Americans for centuries. What about the black man who was tasered to death on the streets by a white cop the other day? That was a lynching. White Americans are the paradigmatic terrorists of the modern world, trashing nations like Iraq and Afghanistan, and threatening the entire world with nuclear holocaust since 1945. Inherent in all this is fundamental racism, and it is pervasive.

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Which is very unamerican, in my humble opinion. The right wing disregards the constitution yet again.

But as to the idea that we can only assume he's talking about black people, that's BS. Who got lynched? We all know the answer to that.

And we all know that the lynchers always thought they were doing the world a favor, too. Ridding it of trash.

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It doesn't matter whether it is a song or a slogan or a joke, there is nothing amusing or entertaining about lynching. I find the song offensive and insensitive. The last lynching was James Byrd in Texas who was dragged behind a truck by a couple of drunken, "good ole boys."Read the newsletter of The Southern Poverty Law Center which monitors hate crimes and hate groups. This is not a trifle; it's a matter of life or death, the rule of law versus mob rule.

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Sometimes we don't think a little ahead to the implications of some of our songs. This is on par with Hank Williams Jr.'s Country Boy Can Survive, which disturbed me a little when it came out.

I don't know where Nelson stands on this one, but I doubt it is with the lynchers. Perhaps the Beer For My Horses idea hooked him, not the lynch mob implications of "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" which appears to advocate more law enforcement but really is calling for more police violence, like the electrocution of the handcuffed fellow in Louisiana. It is reminiscent of the popular military slogan "Kill Em All Let God Sort Em Out!" which has leaked into the ethos and attitude of law enforcement folks who are increasingly being militarized.

We had a policeman killed here in Moscow ID by a crazed former Aryan Nations member who killed his wife, shot up the Latah County cop shop, killed a church sexton and then himself. I attended the funeral and memorial service which took place at University Of Idaho's Kibbie Dome. There were thousands of law enforcement types there, firefighters, forest rangers, cops all to honor the memory and mourn their fallen brother, Lee Newbill. Remarks by the Chaplain of the Coeur d'Alene ID PD shocked me so bad I almost stood up and took issue with the following statement "The civil authorities are appointed by God therefore if you resist the civil authorities you resist God. The cop on the beat is not just appointed by the civil authorities, he is the hand of God on the street to smite the evildoer." This explains a lot.

By the way - if you go to the KKK website you will find that the KKK offers free literature to law enforcement folks, all you gotta do is fax them an image of your badge (name and number obliterated to avoid public exposure) and you will receive your handy kit of hate lit. Makes me feel served and protected for sure. It is open season in America now on Blacks (fellow electrocuted by taser in Louisiana), Latinos (Luis Rodriguez kicked and beaten by HS football team members in Pennsylvania) and Liberals (Unitarian Universalist Church in Tennessee shot up by a guy who hates Liberals).
Everybody duck, unless your one of those who feels he has a license to kill from the Almighty.

Al Chidester aka Fiddlin' Big Al
Fiddlin' Big Al's Old Time Liberal Revival & Barn Dance - Thursdays 7:30-10 pm PDT KRFP 92.5 Moscow ID streaming at www.radiofreemoscow.com

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This song is over 5 years old... Toby Keith recorded it with Willie Nelson (who sings about HIS grandpappy). It was recorded in the wake of September 11 and during the run-up to "GWOT" in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a song about a country man that wants to see some unAmerican terrrists hung from the highest tree. It's about nationalism and revenge. Do I agree with that? I'm not going there--it's not the point of my comment.

Also, in the original music video for this song, no black villains are shown, no 'brown' villains are shown. It's a white guy, being chased by white vigilantes. Furthermore, the theme of the music video is one of Wild West justice. Like "the Sheriff is in town" style.

I just don't see at all how this article is justified. I think you needed to do a little more background checking on this issue before you write an article like this (and publish the photos you published).

Yes Toby Keith is a die hard conservative from the country. Does that make all his songs about hanging someone racist? Nope. Do I like his music? Can't stand it. Do I think the fact that he called an album (containing a racist song about the Taliban) "Shock'n Y'all" is sick and ubernationalist, and embodies all that was and is wrong with post-9/11 patriotism? Hell yeah. But c'mon this article is way out there.

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After reviewing what I found for video on You-Tube for the song I now don't see the problem - there are more white faces than black, no one gets executed on the street by the cops in this one, though it goes on in the real world for sure. Toby gets a pass on this one, but the "lynchings" we are seeing today continue - in part the result of hate speech radio. The hate and racism are there and have been forever - for some it is just as natural as breathing. If there is a racist undertone in some of Keith's music it is not necessarily in his conscious attitudes. Try the late David Allen Coe for conscious and vicious racism - hate set to music as in "Cowboys and Niggers" and "No Niggers in Our Schools" etc.

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Those bad 'boys' should be 'people', are more cost effective staying alive and working for pennies an hour doing work nobody else wants to do. Maybe he should get a 'pope-mobile'.

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and came up with 120,000 hits!

That's gotta mean something.

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Yes, I'm flip flopping on Toby Keith. Okay - he's part of the problem. He didn't start it. We've still got a racist hangover in America (that's a good choice of words considering the topic) and we've gotta find the cure. It has gone underground in some places and emerged revamped as "borders, language and culture" (Michael Savage) and anti "illegal" immigration rhetoric.

Didn't used to be illegal to come here - everyone was welcome until quotas were instituted in 1921, which limited Iltalians to 4,000 and excluded Asians entirely for a time, when the desire of some for upholding an ethnic status quo and avoiding competition with foreign workers was put into law.

Some of our good American vigilantes see fit to do violence to foreigners as in the PA case of Luis Rodriguez. Let's stop the violence.

Fiddlin' Big Al

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.

http://www.nypost. com/seven/ 07292008/ news/regionalnew s/2nd_video_ gives_nypd_ black_eye_ 122136.htm

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This is only a country/western song. No one got lynched in the video; a bad guy got arrested. Apparently, Toby Keith really gets under someone's skin at Alternet. Relax! Concentrate on issues, not song lyrics.

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