Breaking Down Hank Williams Jr’s Racism

On Sunday night I was unwinding after a busy weekend spent working on my website, genxchronicle.com. We cover news, culture and lifestyle through a Generation X lens.

So around midnight I was surfing YouTube on my Roku, and I came across a famous ESPN panel discussion from 2011 with Bomani Jones, then a Sirius Radio host and now an ESPN megastar, Paul Finebaum, the most famous sports radio personality in the South, and Dave Zirin, the excellent sports writer for The Nation magazine.

The topic was country star Hank Williams Jr’s voice being removed from the lead-in to Monday Night Football on ESPN after Williams appeared on Fox and Friends and compared President Barack Obama to Hitler. He also said Obama and Joe Biden were “the enemy.”

The exchange between the three panelists has become iconic, with Finebaum, a Jewish American whose parents are from New York City, defending Williams. Jones gets flabbergasted and basically owns Finebaum in a long exchange as he details Williams’ decades long philosophy of white supremacy as conveyed through his music. Zirin barely gets a word in edgewise.

I love Bomani Jones, he’s brilliant, and I’m looking forward to his new show on ESPN with Pablo Torre debuting in April. Those two dudes are the smartest guys in sports media.

The exchange led me to think about country music, and about Hank Williams Jr., whose music I didn’t really know. So I googled “top Hank Williams songs” and the first one that came up was “A Country Boy Can Survive” from 1982. I said, “Hey Google, play A Country Boy Can Survive,” and boom! There it was.

I was sitting in the kitchen at the time, near the big window, in the computer swivel chair. When the song came on, I was instantly rocked, and I leaned backward slowly in the chair. The song is absolutely mesmerizing. It’s got a melodic drum beat, heavy bass guitar and electrics, and a haunting harmonica.

The words are extremely powerful. It’s basically an anthem for white racial supremacy, and its implications are horrific, but it hits you in the gut with the force of its ideology.

Hank opens with:

The preacher man says it’s the end of time

And the Mississippi River she’s a goin’ dry

The interest is up and the Stock Markets down

And you only get mugged

If you go downtown

Wow! OMFG! Hank Williams Jr. is essentially referring in code to the evil Jewish money changers from biblical times with his reference to interest rates and the stock market. Just awful, hateful stuff. He tops it off with a line about getting mugged if you go downtown, a clear reference to getting mugged by a black person in an inner city, the ultimate fear of middle class and suburban white folks in the crime-ridden 1980’s. This was the height of crime and violence across America, so there was a good deal of white panic about the decay of urban cities.

OK, so far Hank has taken shots at blacks and Jews. Let’s see what he’s got next.

I live back in the woods, you see

A woman and the kids, and the dogs and me

I got a shotgun rifle and a 4-wheel drive

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

Alright, Hank, what have we got here? You live in the woods, you’re married with children, you own dogs, you have a shotgun and a 4-wheel drive. Hmmm. I mean I’m happy you have a life partner in your wife, and that you’ve been blessed with children. The shotgun, I don’t know, Hank, I’m not so crazy about that one. Because what are you going to do with it? Only bad things happen when shotguns are fired, man.

Then you’re saying a country boy can survive. Is that because you have a shotgun, so you can shoot whoever messes with you? Are you also saying city folks couldn’t survive in your situation? I’m not sure I love this verse, I gotta tell you, Hank.

What do you have for me next?

I can plow a field all day long

I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn

We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too

Ain’t too many things these ole boys can’t do

We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

Alright, in this passage there’s not that much there in terms of demagoguery. You’re still taking shots at people, Hank, but this time they’re generic city dwellers and urban folks who can’t plow fields or catch catfish. For some reason you’re very proud of the cooking skills of your fellow country boys, especially their ability to cook tomatoes and make homemade wine. I mean, that does sound pretty good. What are you making, Hank? Fettuccine Marinara with red wine to accompany it? If so, count me in, Plus 1. Thanks!

So what’s next?

Because you can’t starve us out

And you cant makes us run

Cuz we’re them old boys raised on shotgun

And we say grace and we say Ma’am

And if you ain’t into that we don’t give a damn

Let’s see here Hank.. We can’t starve you out. But why would we want to, and who is “we”? I mean I’m Jewish, and I live in New York City, the home of Wall Street. We have a lot of black and Jewish people here. Are we the ones you think are trying to starve you out? Then you say you were raised on shotgun. OK, I get it, you like guns. Again, not my favorite trait of yours, but it is what it is.

You tell us you say grace and ma’am? I mean, I guess that’s OK. I don’t say grace. In fact I’m pretty agnostic. I don’t practice my Jewish religion that much, just on major holidays such as Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah. I would say I’m more culturally Jewish than I am religious. But even so, we don’t say grace in Judaism. Does that mean I’m out of your club?

As for saying ma’am, I just say “miss” most of the time. Sometimes I’ll throw in a ma’am, but I don’t give these kind of exchanges much thought. You know, sir, mister, ma’am, lady, miss, whatever. I think maybe you need to chill out a little and not take these terms of address so seriously.

Finally, you tell us that if we “ain’t into that” you “don’t give a damn.” Alright then, sir, mister, dude. I hear you, and I get your message. Right back at ya. I don’t give a damn if you’re into things I do, either.

So what’s next?

We came from the West Virginia coal mines

And the Rocky Mountains and the and the western skies

And we can skin a buck; we can run a trotline

And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

OK, let’s see what’s up with this verse. Your people, these exalted country folks, are from the West Virginia coal mines, the Rocky Mountains and the western skies. Would western skies mean like Montana, or North Dakota, or something like that? Either way, it’s cool, I like all those places, I’ve been to all of them, and it’s beautiful country. So we’re OK so far.

But then you talk about skinning a buck, and running a trotline. I mean I’ve fished, for sure, but I’ve never hunted, and I’ve definitely never skinned a buck. I’m not sure I want to either. On top of that, my mother is an animal lover, and she devotes a lot of her time to making animals’ lives better. So she’s really influenced me, and the image of skinning a buck just doesn’t sit well with me, and definitely doesn’t seem like something to brag about. You close the verse with “a country boy can survive.” OK, I get it, you’ve made this point before.

What have you got next Hank?

I had a good friend in New York City

He never called me by my name, just hillbilly

My grandpa taught me how to live off the land

And his taught him to be a businessman

He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights

And I’d send him some homemade wine

So you have a good friend in New York City, who always called you hillbilly. That’s not very nice, I’m sorry about that. I never call people from the country hillbilly, though I do think it sometimes. Ha!

Then you say your grandpa taught you how to live off the land, and his taught him to be a businessman. Well, I get it, you’re a country boy, you can skin a buck, live off the land, etc. I guess the new piece of information here is that your Grandpa taught you these skills. Fine.

But your friend’s Grandpa taught him to be a businessman? Now my first reaction is, are you once again referring to Jews and money and business? Because that seems like the implication, since you’re referring to New York City, the epicenter of Jewish life in America.

Even if you’re not referring to Jews, are you saying there’s something wrong with learning to be a businessman at the foot of one’s Grandpa. Because it seems like a pretty good profession to me, and one that most parents would love their children to pursue. You know, money, professional success, power, the American dream, all that stuff. But right, let me not forget, you know how to skin a buck.

Then you say your friend would send you pictures of nights spent watching plays on Broadway in NYC, and you’d send him homemade wine. Sounds like a nice exchange to me. I like this part of your guys’ friendship.

Let’s hear your next verse now:

But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife

For 43 dollars my friend lost his life

I’d love to spit some beechnut in that dude’s eyes

And shoot him with my old 45

Cause a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

OK, there’s a lot to unpack here, Hank. First, I’m sorry for the loss of your friend, I really am. You say he was killed with a switchblade knife, for $43 dollars. I don’t know man, I just get this sneaking suspicion, with the switchblade and the low dollar amount, that you’re implying that your friend was killed by a black attacker in urban New York City. It seems like a dog whistle to me, it really does.

Then you say you want to spit some beechnut in the attacker’s eye, which sounds nasty to me. Beechnut is like some kind of dipping tobacco, right? We don’t do that stuff much in the North, where I grew up.

Now you want to shoot the attacker with you “old 45.” I mean, if it’s old, does it still work? And are you saying you want to bypass the justice system and enact vigilante justice? Like Charles Bronson in Death Wish, which was a 70’s cult classic about white rage? Seems like you’re in dangerous territory here, Hank, it really does.

Your last couple verses are more of the same. You’re letting us know your vaunted country folks are from Northern California and Southern Alabama, and you can “run a trotline.” So you can fish, you tell us once again. Well great, Hank, just great.

What is seems like to me, Hank, after looking at all the lyrics in this song, is that you’ve written a ballad to white supremacy. You make clear your distaste for Jews and blacks, without coming right out and saying it, and you let us know you don’t like city folks and the “businessman.”

So who do you like, Hank? Let me take a wild guess. White people! But non-Jewish white people, and they also have to be white people who aren’t urbanized or educated. Man, you’re a tough critic, Hank.

Now I understand that this song, “A Country Boy Can Survive,” was released in 1982, Hank. Times were different then. I’m not sure it would fly in 2018

But all I can say, as a progressive Jew from New York City, is that I’m happy ESPN took you off the lead-in to their Monday Night Football broadcast. Because you’re a straight up racist, and a bad dude, and you shouldn’t be given a platform to spew your garbage.

That’s my take on your “country boy” BS, Hank. Now go away, and stop bothering us with your hateful views.

Because there are enough people with views like that in America already, bro. We don’t need you adding fuel to the fire.