When Brad Paisley's song, "Accidental Racist" came out a few months ago, I criticized it, along with a lot of other people, on facebook.
To begin with, the title alone is worthy of scorn. In the song, the singer sings about ordering a coffee at Starbucks and wondering whether the barista behind the counter will assume he's a racist because of the Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt he's wearing, because it displays a confederate flag. LL Cool J co-wrote the song with Paisley and sings the part of the barista, wondering whether the customer is front of him is assuming racist things about him because of how he's dressed.
It's admirable a country music star would try to write about such a difficult subject, but he makes the mistake a lot of southerners make, imo. To this northern white woman, a confederate flag not only represents slavery and the KKK. It also stands for the period of our history when the Southern states tried to break apart our country, and commit treason, or the period of our country they tried to circumvent the constitution and deny the rights of a whole race of people. That's why I can't get behind the song. I just wanted to explain why I chose tonight's topic. The song, and the lyrics, have been on my mind this past week. So, please give us your favorite songs about breaking thru racism, prejudice, and discrimination.
Music can be healing force, if we use it for that purpose.
http://www.edchange.org/...
http://www.songfacts.com/...
http://flavorwire.com/...
hint: in order to make your videos embed, you still need to insert http: after src=" and before // in the code.
En Vogue - Free Your Mind
Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam
James Brown - Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud
Curtis Mayfield - We Are The People Who Are Darker Than Blue