BOL Round Table

Finebaum is a complete joke

Hank Wiliams Jr is entitled to his art and his opinions , but there are always consequences for your actions good or bad! Finebaum gave the northern press what they wanted... a stereotypical hotheaded , ignorant , racist southerener ! I wish he remained calm and commented with intelliegence on this subject.

I was raised in Cleveland, graduated from the Capstone/Alabama, have resided in Florida for 27 years .
You" hit the nail on the head". On a national television platform- which includes many not familiar with Finebaum- he misplayed this in its entirety.
He could have intelligently and rationally pointed out that Hank Jr. is a musician, whose poltical views have offended many (analogy is Springsteen) but he's (as has the Boss) raised money for the needy, etc., including recently. A straightforward comment by him saying stereotyping any region and/or activist is unfair regardless and whenever and been 100% more effective.

ok, well maybe there is an argument. agree that "PC" is totally out of control. but i gotta admit, if i were a black guy deeply in touch with my ancestry and what they had to go through, there's a solid chance i would be offended by the song. maybe i'm being too sensitive, but it's just an opinion. i am glad the south lost and wouldn't feel comfortable around someone that felt otherwise. maybe you could argue that slavery would have fizzled either way. maybe so. we only have the facts as we know them and can only speculate on what we don't know.

Personally, I love the song, but Hank Jr. has to realize that we live in a PC nation, and there are consequences for what you say. It's not fair, but it is what it is.

The problem is, the song says nothing about wanting slavery to continue. Its just saying that he feels the conservative ideals that are more prevalent in the south are better represented by southern government. I also am glad that the war ended the way it did, but people shouldn't take things as literally as they do. As for calling Obama the enemy, why didn't the same people who have a problem with what Hank said have a problem with Kane West saying that George Bush hates black people? I mean I think we all know that was a total crock and he was basically saying the same thing. Plain and simple Obamas policies DO NOT represent what the MAJORITY of southerners believe.

Agree and admittedly, I didn't get a chance to view much of the lyrics at work. I know the intent isn't aimed at slavery and I give him a pass because it's his art. It just seems incredibly reckless to write a song saying we'd be better off if the South had won the Civil War. No matter your intent, you're going to hurt people by saying something like that. It's not a place I would dare go, but it's not my art.

The war wasn't fought over slavery. In fact, I've seen a copy of a letter Lincoln wrote to seceding states before the war started, offering to protect their rights to have slaves if they would rejoin the Union and it changed nothing. Slavery was on it's way out. And only a VERY small percentage of southerners had slaves. And I've heard very convincing arguments that if the south would have won (the country wouldn't have been divided for very long) or if Lincoln hadn't been killed (he was against Reconstruction), racial tensions wouldn't be as bad as they are today.
Also, racism is more talked about, but less prevalent in the south. It's way worse up north. They just pretend. I'm not saying it's not here. It's also not one sided. But it's getting better with every generation. Sad thing is, it's those that want to keep it going to have a crutch that keep the water stirred. The race card has lost it's validity because of the false claims.
Bottom line, Fox got the attention they wanted, an issue that needs to be dead and buried was given a little more penicillin, and ESPN was caught in the middle. All while making the white southerner look like a heartless, brainless bigot.

Luda is a rapper that lost his pepsi endorsement because of something he said. On the other hand, Glen Beck said that Obama hates white people (same exact thing that Kanye said) and he didn't lose his job.

People can complain about a double standard all they want whenever someone loses his job for saying something stupid. But bottom line is Hank is paid a ton of money to keep his opinion to himself and avoid any controversy. He failed miserably.

As for your point. I'm pretty sure he knew what he was doing. However I never heard a racist thing come out of his mouth. He spoke about the man. Not the black man. In fact, if you watch the whole interview, he also said some bad stuff about Palin. And he supported her last election.

I think we both agree on that. I have friends that would A) be really hurt and surprised if I said it. And B) prolly be ready to throw down.

So I guess what we should really be questioning is, what is PC really? I imagine that it is a bit different for some people than it is for others. And I never said Kanye was racist.