Talk:Beer for My Horses

Allegations of racism in the song

So . . . as far as I can tell, this song is a graphic celebration of lynching. Is this meant to be a parody? Because if not, it's scary that it's getting such wide play. Phillip (talk) 21:29, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

And what does that have to do with this article? Or do you routinely use Wikipedia to publish your political opinions? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.222.26.86 (talk) 23:50, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, shouldn't there be a controversy about this? Or is there really that big of an insular racist niche so that this can get tons of play without anyone else hearing it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.165.34.41 (talk) 19:15, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

For the life of me I can't believe I'm about to come to the defense of a Toby Keith song, but since a controversy seems to be growing around the it, here goes (sigh). The song isn't about hanging black people, it's about hanging criminals. Some pundits have made statements that the song is about hanging black people, while others have made statements that the other pundits are showing their latent racist tendencies to associate "bad people" with "black people". The lyrics never mention the word "lynching" or even hint at race. Rjhatl (talk) 15:26, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

There is one writer making an issue about this, publishing op-ed pieces in a couple of places. The odd part is that this song and video were release 5 YEARS AGO. Now that a movie, loosely based on the song, is being released, this guy goes to the way-back machine and tries to make an issue of it. He was mum for 5 years. It could be interpreted that the writer is just looking for some publicity. Notice he only writes for left-wong publications like the Huffington Post and The Nation. Further, he misses the point of the entire video, which is the pursuit of a WHITE serial killer. He also misses that the "offending" part about hanging criminals is sung by Willie Nelson, who plays Keiths father, so they are talking about something that happened 3 generations ago. Niteshift36 (talk) 21:19, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Lynching is just mob justice, which does tend to target minority groups. Still, I find nothing in this song that is not pretty definitely lynching. Wiktionary's definition does not mention race as a factor in lynching at all. Seriously, there's no two ways about it: the text of the song jibes pretty easily with the definition of lynching. Phillip (talk) 15:49, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I've read your response 3 times and I still have no idea what you are saying? Niteshift36 (talk) 16:09, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

That's surprising.

Basically: Wiktionary defines "lynching" as mob justice or violence without trial. That is what this song describes and celebrates. It needs not be racially motivated at all. My original post suggested the song was about lynching. Clearly, it is. The race of the victim does not actually matter.

Phillip (talk) 17:19, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The song never "describes or celebrates" mob justice. It did mention once hanging, but if you look at the context of the song and video, you see that they are talking about it in the form of capital punishment, not mob justice. Niteshift36 (talk) 21:37, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

"Lynching is just mob justice, which does tend to target minority groups." I'm curious what source you have. What does "tend to" mean? According to whom? As a minority, I find that statement and these allegations of this song absolutely ridiculous. I always assumed it was meant for criminals.

"My grand papi told my papi back in my day son, a man had to answer for the wicked that he done. Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys, and hang them high in the street."

So anyone alleging this song is racist is purely racist themselves as they seem to think that "bad boy" automatically refers to minorities.

The controversy is stupid, and this song is just great. 161.185.151.150 (talk) 15:15, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

• He gave up defending that line of thought a year and a half ago. Niteshift36 (talk) 18:27, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

This song is a parody not of lynching black people, or any specific criminal - it's a hillarious tongue-in-cheek parody/jab at George W. Bush's completely non-nuanced "no gray area" and short-sighted international and domestic policy (draw a hard line = with us or against us)(raise up our glasses against evil forces), wiretapping, restriction of personal freedoms after 9-11 (somebody blew up a building), all that. It's a spoof of "justice", the religious right (send 'em to their maker..) "mission accomplished" (sing a victory tune...all meet back at the local saloon). Bush, being a Texan, is the butt of the joke of a Texan spoof. Both Toby Keith and Willie Nelson have been publicly vocal about Bush policies - this is their presentation of that protest in song.

• Not sure how you arrived at that "brilliant" conclusion, but it doesn't even make sense. Beer for my horses and the video were released in 2003. Keith endorsed Bush for re-election in 2004. You're letting your personal political bias short-circuit common sense. Niteshift36 (talk) 10:48, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Glenn Beck show

Removed the bit about the statements made on the Glenn Beck program by Toby Keith because it was completely unrelated to the song. --Kill-O-Zap (talk) 20:19, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Should a little note be added?

Should a little note be added to the article about The Song being dedicated to AMW(Americas most wanted) by Mr. Willie Nelson afterwards? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bkopicz3 (talk • contribs) 04:31, 12 February 2009 (UTC)