In Defense of "Rednecks"

What follows are the lyrics to Randy Newman's infamous 1974 song "Rednecks":

Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart ass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well he may be a fool but he's our fool
If they think they're better than him they're wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that's where I made this song

We talk real funny down here
We drink too much and we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town
And we're keepin' the niggers down

We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol' boys from Tennessee
And colleges men from LSU
Went in dumb. Come out dumb too
Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they're keepin' the niggers down

CHORUS
We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
And we're keeping the niggers down

Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free

Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down

I like this song. Excuse me, I like this song a lot. The first time someone hears it, they almost always pass over most of the lyrics outside of the prominent use of "nigger." This sounds out of place in a 70's pop song written by a Caucasian man certainly (It may help his case a little bit that he sounds kind of like Ray Charles), but if one listens to it again and can get beyond the pre-Hip-Hop Caucasian use of the word "nigger", the song transforms into what it was intended to be, a tongue-in-cheek look at not only racism in the South, but also intolerance of Southern culture in the North. To understand the song fully, you have to know who Lester Maddox is. Lester was the flamboyantly racist governor of Georgia from 1967-1971 who said incredibly ignorant things like flying the state flag at half-mast after Martin Luther King, Jr passed was a waste of time, as it was "in honor of a Negro." This was the model that Newman picked to represent Southern racism, an easy fit for the character in the song (though sadly one that isn't as radical as a lot of idiots I've seen living in Northern Georgia). Anyways, the Maddox character starts listing off various examples of Southern culture, examples that Northerners use as snobby complaints and insults, yet examples that the Maddox character (and most proud Southerners) view as their simple-folk charm (Meaning the Maddox character wouldn't know what Starbucks is and would have a certain amount of pride in his not knowing), so the Southern character, even though being berated, feels as though he is being commended. This is a prime example of one side not "getting" the other and there being little hope (let alone desire) in doing so.

From there the song moves from Maddox describing himself and his fellow Southern racists onto the topic of Northern hypocrisy. In Maddox's view, even though the slaves might be free from Plantation labor in the North, they're not not as free as the Northerners would have anyone believe, due to the Northern tendency to jail them in a quick, nonchalant manner. Again, an example of one side not fully understanding the other side's point. While the Maddox character accuses the Northerners of racism, simply in a different fashion, the Northern character feels as though they're just doing what's right for their society and raise their eyebrows at being called racist by Southerners.

Anyways, it all ends up being a huge Catch 22, and endless debate like any other political or religious view.

The song, however, does win at it's purpose. It dilutes both sides using wit and a humble rhetoric. Plus, it's hummable (I don't recommend singing it aloud in public though). To download hear Mr. Newman's "Rednecks," click here.