I agree with this for the most part.
But, for the sake of argument, if the song had been co-opted from a racist authoritarian person's way of thinking, it's hard for a black student to not hear that when it's sung. IF... And if so, we should be able to consider, not invalidate that.
Fortunately, that's not the case
I'll share something personally... My biological father left my mom when she was pregnant. Broke her heart. She almost didn't come back from it (poor in the late 60s). Without going into detail, country music wasn't in my wheelhouse until I got to college, where I added that to my repertoire. Mom and I go somewhere in college and I pop in a cassette (yes it was about 1989) and she starts crying. She says "he" listened to country music and she didn't realize I had started listening to it. I turned it off and never did that in front of her again. Though I've been to multiple country concerts, etc. Not with her. Because, for her, she can't listen to it without thinking of a terrible past. In an ideal world, she might have gotten help, she might have worked through it. If you understand where someone you care about has gone through, it's ok to be thoughtful.
Had they found out the EoT had a racist past, I would have taken the hit for my black TexasEx brothers.
I'm glad reasoned research revealed the truth.
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Last edited: Mar 11, 2021