Pretending and Accepting In a "White Man's World"

 

“I'm a white man living on a white man's street
I've got the bones of the red man under my feet
The highway runs through their burial grounds
Past the oceans of cotton

“I'm a white man looking in a black man's eyes
Wishing I'd never been one of the guys
Who pretended not to hear another white man's joke
Oh, the times ain't forgotten

“There's no such thing as someone else's war
Your creature comforts aren't the only things worth fighting for
You're still breathing, it's not too late
We're all carrying one big burden, sharing one fate

“I'm a white man living in a white man's nation
I think the man upstairs must'a took a vacation
I still have faith, but I don't know why
Maybe it's the fire in my little girl's eyes
Maybe it's the fire in my little girl's eyes.”

– Excerpts from “White Man's World” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

I am a 69-year-old White Appalachian living in rural Southern Ohio. I'll never forget the first time an acquaintance asked me: “Why are you arguing against your own race?” after I defended the Black Lives Matter movement. Actually, that comment didn't surprise me at all because my county is 94.4 percent White according to 2019 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. I live in a “White Man's World.”

Separated by the width of the Ohio River from neighboring Kentucky, my home of Scioto County has been a place where de facto segregation – largely present in housing, schooling, and employment – has a long history. De facto racism exists “in reality or by fact” even though it may not be officially sanctioned. Such prejudice and antagonism continues here.

In a northern state like Ohio – especially in Southern Ohio – the defense to de facto discrimination by Whites is akin to denying the legal responsibility for the visible realities of racial segregation. James Baldwin wryly observed back in 1965: “De facto segregation means Negroes are segregated, but nobody did it.”

And, now, racism of the aversive nature infects my county. Unconscious and indirect, aversive racism is practiced by those who regard themselves as nonprejudiced but, at the same time, who harbor negative feelings and beliefs about members of minority groups.

These negative evaluations of racial/ethnic minorities are realized by a persistent avoidance of interaction with other racial and ethnic groups – some would say it is “bias without intention.” Intentional or not, in many ways aversive racism parallels the effects of traditional, overt racism (e.g., in the restriction of economic opportunity and in continuance of interracial distrust).

Jason Isbell and “White Man's World”

Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell grew up in Green Hill, Alabama, often hearing sentiments coming from his radio extolling the virtues of the good old days, of small-town America, of times that seemed simpler and happier through the rear-view mirror of history. That Southern history and all it means greatly influenced his thinking and his songwriting.

Isbell's acclaimed 2017 album The Nashville Sound included several songs that broached topics that are exceptionally touchy for many in country’s predominantly white, rural audience, and even more fearsome for radio programmers who try to avoid controversy at all costs. Thus, his music received little or no airplay on mainstream country radio stations even though Isbell is one of the most popular artists in the world of Americana music and consistently performs sold-out shows.

The critics loved the music despite the controversy, and Isbell and his band won the Grammy for Best Americana Album in 2017. Isbell also won the Grammy for Best American Roots Song – "If We Were Vampires" – at the 60th ceremony.

However the most noteworthy song on The Nashville Sound may have been “White Man’s World,” in which Isbell didn’t overtly rail against perceived injustices. Instead, he raised questions about his own life experience, about the privileges he’s enjoyed, where those privileges came from and who paid what price to create them.

“I’m not afraid right now,” said Isbell in a recent interview. “I’m the person who’s benefiting from most of the tax cuts and the new healthcare plan. I’m the guy who could afford healthcare no matter what the new plan says. But it still drives me nuts on behalf of other people.”

“I’m not going to get kicked out of the country,” Isbell added. “I’m 15th-generation American. But the fact that people pay me for my opinion — and they do, whether they realize it or not; that’s what you’re paying for, whether you buy a ticket to a show or whether you buy a record – I think it makes me responsible … I can’t stay completely silent on those things.”

(Randy Lewis. “'I can’t stay completely silent’: Country music’s Jason Isbell looks inward in examining a ‘White Man’s World.’” Baltimore Sun. June 29, 2018.)

Speaking on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah,” Isbell explained he wrote “White Man's World” after thinking about his daughter the day following Donald Trump's election to the presidency.

"The thing that popped into my mind first was 'Thank God she's an infant, because I don't have to explain any of this to her,'" he said. "She'll figure it out as she grows up, but if she was a couple of years older I would have to be like, 'OK, honey here's what happened today and this is why your father doesn't really know anything about human people in this country anymore."

The song is certainly about race, but one line in particular also questions country music's view of gender. One of the lyrics was inspired by Jason Isbell's wife, the singer-songwriter and violinist Amanda Shires.

“Mama wants to change that Nashville sound
But they're never gonna let her”

Isbell explained to Rolling Stone: "Some idiot country-radio guy said that women were 'the tomatoes on the salad,' meaning they were there to kind of decorate country radio's actual revenue stream. That got me thinking how little value is given to women in that world. I've seen it with Amanda. She writes her own songs and tours, and through her experience I've seen how much harder it is for her. You don't get the same respect. It is not a level playing field by any means."

In November 2017, Isbell was asked on Twitter, "Why do we have to inject politics in every aspect of our life. Can't we just enjoy the music and the football games?" He responded, "Until you are the one being treated unfairly, that's easy to say."

Isbell explains further about what he feels is a personal obligation in his music …

“I feel like, in especially “White Man’s World,” there’s the sense that being white men, especially Southern, places us on the wrong side of history in a lot of ways.

“I think I’ve felt the way that I feel for a long time, but when she (his daughter) came along, I thought, 'I’m going to have to tell everybody how I feel now, one way or another, because that’s what I want her to see, and if there’s any way I can make the world a better place for her, then that’s what I’m going to have to try to do.' But it didn’t change my beliefs, and I think that’s how people are able to be white men with daughters and still be bigots, you know, still be misogynists.

“The criticism I’ve received from “White Man’s World” comes in the form of proud white men saying, 'I don’t have any shame or guilt for being a white man.' But nobody should really have guilt or shame about something they can’t control. I’m born a white person. The guilt and shame would come in if I didn’t use my privilege to try to make the world a better place for other people. That’s where the guilt and the shame comes in – if you’ve spent your whole life just enjoying your privilege, and never actually working for it by trying to level the playing field for other folks.

“The older I get, the more I think I should have said something every single time I heard the N-word in elementary school, or every time I heard someone make a joke about women or Mexicans in a bar when I was growing up in Alabama. If there’s any regrets as I’m getting older, it’s that I didn’t stand up for people as often as I could have, and I think really that’s what I’m talking about in that song is, since all these doors are already open for me, being a white man, my job is to try to hold them for the person behind me or the person in front of me, to try to open them for someone they might be locked for.”

(Baynard Woods. “Jason Isbell Tackles White Privilege and Southern Heritage on New Album.” Flagpole. July 5, 2017.

Whether you grew up White in Green Hill, Alabama or in Portsmouth, Ohio, you know about the “jobs” still ahead to which Isbell refers: to achieve racial and gender equality. He employs his craft with regard for needed change at the risk of losing milky popularity.

Jason Isbell has rattled the conscience of the country music industry. He is one of the Americana artists whose transparency is widely recognized. And now many country artists are beginning to use their platforms to draw attention to the plague that is racial inequality in America.

On June 2, 2020, country music’s biggest superstars – including Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Florida Georgia Line, Maren Morris, Brad Paisley, and Luke Combs – reacted to the killing of George Floyd and their overall feelings about the culture of police brutality against people of color.

The artists took part in the #BlackoutTuesday social media initiative. And, music labels like Universal, Warner, Sony, BMG, and Big Machine closed their offices for the day and instructed their employees to disconnect from work and learn more about the racial and social injustices happening in our country.

(Kurt Bardella. “'It fills my heart': Country music jumps into fight for racial justice after Floyd killing.” USA Today. June 19, 2020.)

Setting a future agenda for research and practice related to aversive racism is key to greater understanding of how to reduce intergroup bias and discrimination through interventions that cut across traditional boundaries.

Traditional prejudice-reduction techniques have been concerned with changing old-fashioned racism and obvious expressions of bias. However, traditional techniques that emphasize the immorality of prejudice are not effective for combating aversive racism.

Aversive racists recognize that prejudice is bad, but they do not recognize that they are prejudice. To combat this, aversive racists need not feel shame for their own racial identity, but they do need to recognize and stop their anti-outgroup behaviors – to fight the remnants of social injustice.

Jason Isbell – partly due to his past, but more by virtue of his moral conscience – recognizes the need to continue to fight in a war against prejudice. That war still causes casualties every day. It's time to stop the hurt and help materialize a dream for future generations. Maybe we can begin to do that by coming to grips with privilege in the world in which we live.