Media Post 1

Johnny Rebel - Nigger-In-Law lyrics

The other day I ran into an old friend
Joe was his name
So I said, "Joe, how ya been?"
He said, "JR, you won't believe this, but things ain't worth a damn."
And I said, "Joe, what's the problem?'
He said "JR, you wanna know my problem? Well, I'll tell ya my problem."
And he began his story, something like this:

All my life I've been single
I didn't wanna be tied down
But I finally did it, I finally got married
And the chants started goin' around
She was divorced and had three kids
They all had fair skin and blonde hair
But I didn't know their daddy was a nigger
And daddy just had to be there

Awwwww...

What do you do when
Everything's messed up
Stickin' down in your crawl
Other men lucky
All they have to aggitate 'em
Is a dog-gone
Mother-in-law
But this black hairy dude
Livin' down at my house
Beats all you ever saw
I'm the sole-bred winner
Of a wife and three
Bakin' ninnies
And a nigger-in-law

And he kept on-a-talkin'
And I just kept on listenin'
And he went on, something like this:

It all started last friday evenin'
I got home from work, there he sat
Sittin' there loafin', restin' and-a-smokin'
Man, he was ace of spades black
I didn't know just who he was then
But it wasn't too long 'til I did
He said, "Don't get uptight, I have visitin' rights.
I came to see your wife and my kids."

Awwwww...

What do you do when
Everything's messed up
Stickin' down in your crawl
Other men lucky
All they have to aggitate 'em
Is a dog-gone
Mother-in-law
But this black hairy dude
Livin' down at my house
Beats all you ever saw
I'm the sole-bred winner
Of a wife and three
Bakin' ninnies
And a nigger-in-law

But he talked on, and I began to figure out
That Joe had found a solution
He said:

He was still there saturday evenin'
Just-a-watchin' me mow the lawn
He watched the game on sunday and the soaps on monday
It's tuesday and he still wasn't gone
Suddenly I got me an idea
And I came up with a plan
I turned my nigger-loving wife and her nigger ex-husband
Over to the Ku Klux Klan

Hehe...

That's what you do
When everything's messed up
Stickin' down in your crawl
Never again will I
Ever say a word
About anybody's
Mother-in-law
That nigger ho'ed up
When the Klan showed up
It's the last thing he ever saw
Now I'm the ex-husband
Of a wife with three
Bakin' ninnies
And a nigger-in-law
I'm the proud ex-husband
Of a wife with three
Bakin' ninnies
And a nigger-in-law

This is a song written by Johnny Rebel, Johnny Rebel is a southern country artist who's songs are very controversial when talking about racism. This song called Nigger In-Law, it is about a man named Joe who got married to a white girl, he finally thought life was good but he later found out that that was not the case. He found out that his wife used to be married to a nigger. The reason why I think this is a good media to connect to our class is in this song you have examples of racism, when he talks about how lazy the ex-husband is and how his wife married outside of the white race.
Some of the song can be related to the book The Meaning of Difference: American Construction of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, and Sexual Orientation which we read in class. On page 27 Travis and Rosenblum talks about the "Other", they say many things that this "Other" can be, like how during Reconstruction some people who are of African decent could pass as whites because of interrelationships from their ancestors, but the one that go's along with this song is that the "Other" is someone who marries outside of their racial class. In this song, Joe is very mad that he married a girl who's ex-husband was black. You hear him complaining about it the whole time, one example of this is how he says that other men are lucky since all they have to agitate them is a mother-in-law. In the reading it says that parents may disown children who marry outside their race, Joe in a way disowns his "nigger-loving wife and her nigger ex-husband" by turning them over to the Ku Klux Klan.
Another course material Ethnic Notions can be related to this song. In the movie they talked about how whites portrait black men as lazy. In this song that is seen when he says:
"He was still there saturday evenin'
Just-a-watchin' me mow the lawn
He watched the game on sunday and the soaps on monday
It's tuesday and he still wasn't gone"
This is a good example since all that Joe is saying here is that the ex-usband would not leave nor do anything, which is why he is a lazy blackman.
On the issue of whites marring a black, I agree with this song. I do not believe that a white should marry a black. I do not believe that one should be turned over to the Ku Klux Klan but I do not find it wrong if a parent is to disown their child if they are to marry a black. On the issue of blacks being lazy, some are and some are not. It all depends on where you live and the conditions. In the movie they said its racism to believe that blacks are lazy since we are stereotyping them but again it depends on the location of where you live. With this you will see many or no lazy blacks.