Toby Keith's a racist?

The Huffington Post:
"Toby Keith's Pro-Lynching Publicity Tour Hits Colbert, CBS and More"
Max Blumenthal - July 29th, 2008

Despite his background as a comedian, Stephen Colbert is known by many of the authors who have appeared on his show as one of the toughest interviewers in the business. But on July 28, when country music superstar Toby Keith stepped on the set of the Colbert Report to promote his movie, Beer For My Horses, he was greeted by his host with nothing less than reverential admiration. After a jovial, back-slapping sit-down with Keith, Colbert turned the stage over to his guest for a performance of the song that inspired the title and theme of his forthcoming "Southern comedy."

While Keith belted out "Beer For My Horses," Colbert's studio audience clapped to the beat, blithely unaware that they were swaying to a racially tinged, explicitly pro-lynching anthem that calls for the vigilante-style hanging of car thieves, "gangsters doing dirty deeds...crime in the streets," and other assorted evildoers. The lyrics to Keith's ode to lynching are as follows:

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

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 men, 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...

During the days when Toby Keith's "Grandpappy" stalked the Jim Crow South, lynching was an institutional method of terror employed against blacks to maintain white supremacy. According to the Tuskegee Institute, between the years 1882 and 1951, 3,437 African-Americans were lynched in the United States, mostly in the heart of Dixie. Felonious assault and rape (read: corrupting "the flower of white womanhood") were the two most frequent justifications for lynch mob actions... Those who doubt the presence of racist undertones in Keith's "Beer For My Horses" should see the song's video. Cue ahead to 3:00 and watch as Keith intones, "We got too many gangsters doin' dirty deeds." The singer's words are not-so-subtly accompanied by the image of a swaggering black man sporting short dreads and baggy clothes. Thus the profile of Keith's ideal lynching candidate is revealed...Dear Huffington Post,
You guys are idiots. I had always regarded you as one of the more intelligent sources of SERIOUS journalism... But way to prove me wrong. Are you seriously going to sit here and call "Raciest" and pull the damn black card? God forbid someone use the word lynch ::Gasp:: I said it! Does that not make me a racist too? You say "Those who doubt the presence of racist undertones in Keith's "Beer For My Horses" should see the song's video" so I did. And that just affirmed my belief that you're an idiot even more. You try to lead people to believe that "Toby Keith's Grandpappy stalked the Jim Crow South". AKA,Georgia and was running around lynching blacks in order to to "maintain white supremacy". WOW! Those are some big aligations from someone who CLEARLY didn't watch the video themselves!

Since you clearly didn't watch the clip, let me break it down for you. Keith is a big town police detective (presumed to be from either Dallas or Houston) who is having problems solving a case. He calls upon his father, a retired criminal profiler, who is now residing outside the town of Buffalo, TX. Keith and his partner make a trip out to the country to meet up with his father at his house. Upon entering the house, the camera pans across old photographs, 2 guns, a hat, one badge engraved "Buffalo Marshal" and another badge engraved "Arizona Rangers". Through the song, it's presumed that memorabilia belongs to Keith's "grandpappy", if not more family members. Since they show the "Arizona Ranger's" badge 4 different times throughout this video, I figure it to be significant, one way or another. So I look up the "Arizona Rangers" and find the following description:

"The Arizona Rangers were organized in 1901 with the purpose of ridding Arizona of such individual criminals and criminal gangs. Their objectives were to hunt down and capture the lone wolves and members of the gangs, to clear the areas in which criminals congregated and make them safe for settlement by law abiding citizens and to discourage the riffraff of the rest of the country to seek refuse in Arizona. They were picked from law officers, military men, ranchers and cowboys. With maximum company strength of 26 men, they covered the entire territory."

I'm going to assume that because of the "Buffalo Marshal" badge that the father lives there and Keith lives and works in either Dallas or Houston since Buffalo seems to be about mid way between both. Ok. So looking at the US Census Bureau's statistics, about 26% of both cities happen to be black. So don't you think, if Keith was working in a place who has 25% of any particular race that he would run into at least a couple of them?

If you look at the clips from Dallas/Houston where he's asking people if he's seen the suspect, you will see not only did he question that black man that you seem so hot and bothered over, he also questioned a white female and male "punk" looking kids together, then white AND black female prostitutes, Then while questioning the black "homeless" man, a white "homeless" man walks through the shot. So lets see... That's 2 out of 6 people who happen to be black. That seems pretty close tot he 26% to me.

I just don't understand the connection between the "Arizona Ranger" Grandpappy lynching "gangsters doing dirty deeds" and the lynching blacks in the south in order to to "maintain white supremacy". Please, can you explain that one to me? Cuz last time I checked lynching was the main form of execution in the south west in the early 1900's... Be it executing a white guy, a Hispanic, Asian or black. So why can't this just be an upbeat song about justice getting back to the way it was? Why do you have to bring race into it?

Reference(s):
The Huffington Post: Toby Keith's Pro-Lynching...
Toby Keith, Beer For My Horses (YouTube, Video)
Arizona Rangers (Information)
US Census Bureau - Houston, Texas
US Census Bureau - Dallas, Texas