Anderson — who reportedly brought her three-year-old son to the event featuring rides, a beer tent and a classic car show — said she was aghast when she set her eyes on the jump-prone muscle car driven by Bo and Luke, the good old boys.I mean, I went to high school. I also saw the Dukes of Hazzard as a kid. I'm pretty sure the show wasn't racist even though other uses of the flag have been.
“I was in shock at first,” she said, according to Inside Toronto. “My heart started beating.”
In her mobile phone video, Anderson expresses great outrage at the car and demands that festival organizers get rid of it immediately.
“I want the car gone!” Anderson demands in the video. “I want it out of sight!”
“Everyone knows, anyone who went to high school, you [expletive] numb nuts!” Anderson said, apparently with her young child in tow. “This is racist.”
But let's review. Here's a couple of Outlaw Country legends performing on the show at the "Boar's Nest" roadhouse. They don't make a big deal about it, but notice that -- nearly forty years ago -- the crowd at this imaginary Southern drinking establishment was portrayed as cheerfully integrated.
I don't know that they did this intentionally, or if they just pulled extras at random, but clearly it wasn't being imagined as a place where anyone of good faith wasn't welcome.
UPDATE:
Apparently not the only uproar about an unexpected flag this weekend.
The Chicago-based LGBTQ newspaper Windy City Times quoted a Dyke March collective member as saying the rainbow flag with the Star of David in the middle "made people feel unsafe," and that the march was "pro-Palestinian" and "anti-Zionist." The Chicago Dyke March is billed as an "anti-racist, anti-violent, volunteer-led, grassroots mobilization and celebration of dyke, queer, bisexual, and transgender resilience," according to its Twitter account.UPDATE: Ironically, gay activists in Turkey have their struggles covered sympathetically today by the Times of Israel.
The tribal identifiers aren't working well. We should really look for common principles instead.
17 comments:
My mind is apparently too inflexible to reconcile the concepts of "pro-Palentinian" and "anti-violent"; too small to hold both ideas at the same time ; and too slow to switch back and forth between them in the same conversation.
It's like what Kristin Tate said on Fox & Friends about the Precious Ones WaPo wrote about--these are melting snowflakes who can't hack reality and not getting what they want when they want it.
I pay them no never mind.
Eric Hines
...apparently too inflexible to reconcile the concepts of "pro-Palentinian" and "anti-violent"...
Being against violence is basically incompatible with support for any nation or nationality. Those things can only survive if they are defended, and defense entails a commitment to violence under at least some circumstances.
This is a point frequently missed by people who equate "anti-violent" with "good." Many good things must be defended if they are to exist.
Ironically, I could see some objecting to how Dukes of Hazard depicted white Southerners- as mindless yokels out for a good time. Boss Hogg- certainly some could object to short, fat, and stupid. But he was funny.
Though I suspect that most Southerners saw the show as I assume it was intended- all in good fun.
I didn't see many episodes, but I don't recall any mention of blacks in the show- though that non-mention these days might be considered racist by some, I suppose.
Gays jumping on the Pali bandwagon is more than ironic, given how Hamas has thrown some gays off buildings.
There was a black sheriff, actually, from Chickasaw county, as well as a number of others. Here's an article pointing out that the show had more black characters than popular shows like Friends and Seinfeld. (But of course those were set in New York, so they must be un-racist.)
It wasn't something the show was really 'about,' to be sure. But there was certainly no animosity towards blacks on display. It would have been easy for them to make an all-white show, even defensible given that the Appalachian South being portrayed really is quite close to all-white. Certainly you wouldn't be far off from reality if you showed a country music or bluegrass concert attracting a pretty-much-all-white crowd! But that isn't what happened with the show, and that fact is worth noticing.
Thanks for the info, Grim.
Country music fans had wholeheartedly embraced the principle of equal justice under the laws by the time I was a tiny child. It shows in the songs they made into huge hits.
Tennessee Ernie Ford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1gZuabWfb8
Elvis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afikgzp_bpE
Loretta Lynn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dip54axBnIs
Tompall Glasser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWpYQjuJ0u0
Charlie Pride
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRIRTQ_k-Sg
Statler Brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W8djzS21uc
("Get a gimmick like Charlie Pride got")
Which continues to this day
Brad Paisley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zc2FAgooR4
Miranda Lambert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Mq0Vvsxk8
Calling these people a bunch of racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic basket of deplorables was a real good way to lose an election.
Valerie
How about "Six White Horses," Valerie? Originally recorded by Tommy Cash, it was also done by Johnny Cash, Lester Flatt, and Waylon Jennings (and others too). Yet it was a song mourning the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in the same terms as that of President Kennedy and his brother.
Also Merle Haggard's Irma Jackson. Capitol Records was worried about it though, and delayed the release of it.
"I pay them no never mind."
I remind you of the old axiom- you may not be interested in war, but war may be interested in you...
I just went through a big hullabaloo at my daughters elementary school, even though she culminated from there this year. Some SJW's wanted the principal gone, because they thought she hadn't done enough about a 'culture of racism' at the school (there were about a handful of incidents of kids using racially tinged language, only two of which were used in animus). This at a school that when I went to it in the seventies was one of the most mixed environments you could hope to have in a school, and is one of the most tolerant places I know- so much so it attracts many same-sex couple families. They are crazy people, but it was a surprise to a great many folks here who view themselves as good progressives. The PTA board, of which my wife was a member, were being called "white supremacists", despite the fact that it included about every racial/religious/gender group you could think of. There is no logic to these people, and fortunately, the school liked the principal and fought off the district when they tried to quietly transfer her after the end of the school year. Score one for the good people. Most of the trouble makers are moving on to greener pastures where I'm sure they'll hope to gain more traction. They caused a great deal of disruption here and hurt a lot of good people who do a great deal of good in the community, and nearly chased out a truly good principal from a job no one in their right mind wants.
Now, I know I live on the leading edge of this stuff, but this was about the least likely place you'd expect to hear these complaints. They'll bring they're trouble with them, and spread it around, as they're so good at doing. It'll get out there to you all soon enough.
The only good that came of this was that I think a lot of progressive folks got to see where this is going, and they may find that perhaps they aren't quite as progressive as they thought they were.
Valerie- not to mention that Charlie Pride is black. When I was working in Trinidad, a Trini local, with whom I shared staff housing,was a big C&W fan. At his request, I mailed him some Charlie Pride tapes after I left Trinidad.
Speaking of law enforcement in Dukes of Hazzard, I am reminded of Penguin's Deputy. In Trini slang, a deputy is a mistress.
I was not familiar with "Six White Horses." I don't get the reference to MLK. Was it the timing?
I didn't even think of "Where were you when the world stopped turning?" by Alan Jackson, and yet I know that many, many people, including members of my family, took it as a call to action. For example, my mom decided that she would keep an eye on FEMA. She reasoned that there would be floods, and those people should not be neglected due to the diversion of attention to the attack.
It was a thoughtful song, that stood out to me as being grounded in the structure of a judicial opinion, ending not with a result but a question and a clear statement of the standard by which we and our children would judge our own actions.
Me, I scoop up the news as widely as possible, from the best sources I can find. Right now, I run among the crude, rowdy, enthusiastic, native, young male demographic. They love their shocking words, and for the moment, I and others try to teach them that their crude words have a history, namely a push by the former SDS to "smash monogamy" and turn the happiest gift God gave us into an epithet. It's a small thing, but I suspect that most young people do not want to be overly casual lovers.
My gift is language, and I hope to take back the language the SDS ruined, at least for young people of good will.
Valerie
Yeah, Charlie Pride is black, and when "Kiss an angel good morning" was at the top the charts, I heard lots of people say "I don't care if he's black, if he sings that country music! They wanted the music.
So's Hootie, or Darius Rucker.
Valerie
I was not familiar with "Six White Horses." I don't get the reference to MLK.
The idea was, I think, to universalize the tragedy -- and thus transcend politics and race -- by treating the cases as so very similar. So the men are only referred to by their first names, which are common enough names: John, Robert, Martin. But he does say "Goodbye Reverend" when talking about "Martin," and as you say, the timing mattered too. It was on everyone's mind.
Have you noticed how the left no longer refers to the Reverand Martin Luther King, Jr.? It's always "Dr." now. That's not accidental. I make it a point now to say Reverend when referring to him, every time.
Uh, make that Reverend... not enough sleep last night I guess. At least I got it right the second time.
Oh, and keep fighting the good fight, Val!
I had not noticed that, although I should add that "Dr. King" satisfies The Quiet Man's description of the etiquette: not 'father' but "Mr. Playfair, or on formal occasions, the Reverend Mr. Playfair."
So it's only on formal occasions when the full title is appropriate; you'll have to judge whether your occasions are those. It is "the Reverend Dr....," though, not merely "the Reverend Martin."
It's funny because in general use, when I was younger it seemed like it was always Reverend. Now, it's always Doctor. I understand the formal rules, but in general use, in our society, they carry rather different sensibilities, and I also think that the left may be showing it's preference for education being the mark of excellence, rather than dedication to God. Or, perhaps I'm all wet. I notice that the King Center website repeatedly refers to "Dr. King", and never "Rev.". Hm.
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