A movie about a segregated town full of white people and 1 evil Mexican - Beer for My Horses (2008) Discussion

[–] stoogedude 16 years ago

Ok, well the guy that was arrested happened to be Mexican. Perhaps there have been many arrests, in which one of them happened to be Mexican.

A lot of kids wear their pants down low to show their underwear because they are wannabe rappers. So, no, Toby is not a bigot by calling him a rapper...there are white rappers too, you know. Notice how he didn't say "black" or use any racially offensive expletive. And did you know that some towns actually have laws that issue fines to people who show their underwear in public?

I haven't seen the movie yet, so I can't fully defend it, but you haven't seen it either, so you can't trash it either. Well, you CAN, but it's useless and pathetic to do so.

Because Toby Keith is a country singer who has had TWO patriotic songs, and Beer for My Horses which advocates justice for criminals, BOOM!, he is automatically a racist and a bigot.

Jumping to conclusions, my good man.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] stoogedude 16 years ago

You've never heard Toby Keith songs and yet you are willing to call it pop music? Toby Keith is probably the most country Country artist out there now, and while I like Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, Country music isn't about the twang, it's about the themes and stories it tells. So on that level, Toby Keith is as Country as Johnny and Willie.

If you don't know Toby Keith songs and didn't know Beer for my Horses was a song, then where online did you find out about this movie? And have you seen the movie? You based your opinion (and rather harsh one at that) on a 30 second clip?

Please provide a link, and allow someone else to judge this themselves.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] anavrinin 16 years ago

i would LOVE to lynch toby keith. them's fighting words, you worhtless redneck.

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[–] stoogedude 16 years ago

Yeah, well I read that article before typing my last post, and still would like a link that proves all this.

First of all, it's the Huffington Post, so I take what they say with a grain of salt, since it IS Toby Keith, and they are a liberal website who seems to get off on bashing people who they feel are conservatives who do or say things that they feel are bad.

This Max Blumenthal hasn't seen the movie, he doesn't know Toby Keith. He sees a country singer who has had controversy with some of his songs, and EASY TARGET! It appeases it's liberal readers, and gives them another reason to hate conservatives or country musicians and their fans.

I have many liberal views myself, but people like Blumenthal make me sick.

First off, Toby is not racist. He has voluntarily performed with Wayman Tisdale on Tisdale's latest album, he has met with many Iraqis and Afghanis on his many trips to entertain the troops overseas. Toby has never made any racist claim (that I know of).

Second, the song refers to what his "grandpappy" said. It refers to the fact that in his grandfathers day, justice was given to those who deserved it. Now, I realize that there were many injustices committed then as now. It is shameful that these happened, like those pictures in the article regarding Leo Frank. But that wasn't justice. The song refers to justice being given to those who do evil. We are not in Toby's head, we don't know how he really feels.

Now, I don't agree that people should be given death for merely stealing a car. I believe the death penalty should be given to murderers. That said, just because I don't agree with the song necessarily doesn't mean that I dislike Toby. He has a tremendous catalog of great songs that far trump "Beer for My Horses".

What's more ridiculous is when Blumenthal refers to a point in the music video for Beer for My Horses where there is a glimpse of "[an] image of a swaggering black man sporting short dreads and baggy clothes". Way to jump to conclusions, Max. Anything to expose a "redneck" for the "pond-scum" you think he is, right Max? Did Max notice that there is a picture of a white guy with a noose around his neck? Probably not. It would prove he's not really racist, just eager to bring justice to evildoers. That would not do well to help Mr. Blumenthal's point, would it?

And to further show how ignorant Bluementhal is, the "swaggering black man sporting short dreads and baggy clothes" is being shown a picture of the suspect (who is WHITE in the video) by a detective and asked if he has seen the suspect. But since it's a country song, well it's obviously racist and completely hate filled.

Provide a link with REAL proof, please.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

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[–] csstrowbridge 16 years ago

"First of all, it's the Huffington Post, so I take what they say with a grain of salt..."

Are you seriously arguing that they are lying about the lyrics? But nice use of the "Poisoning the Well" fallacy. According to your logic, we can take what you say with a grain of salt as well.

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[–] stoogedude 16 years ago

No, they are not lying about the lyrics...those are the lyrics, I've heard the song, I've read the lyrics in the album liner notes. But they are forming the wrong conclusions, probably because it IS a country song, and the singer IS Toby Keith.

Actually, I misspoke. I do read the Huffington Post every so often, and I do agree with some things. But this Blumenthal gets off on things like this to smear Toby Keith. Perhaps I was using a "poisoning the well" fallacy, but so too was Blumenthal.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

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[–] csstrowbridge 16 years ago

"... probably because it IS a country song, and the singer IS Toby Keith."

You are doing exactly what you are accusing Blumenthal of doing.

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[–] stoogedude 16 years ago

Ok, I regret that I have resorted to the same tactics as Blumenthal, I was just as wrong as he is. But if what I'm saying is not the case, I don't know what it could be, because Toby Keith is not a racist. There is too much evidence to the contrary and Blumenthal's explanation of the video and the shaggy clothed comment about the black guy in the video is simply ridiculous.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

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[–] Niteshift36 16 years ago

I like country (Johnny CASH or Willie) but not pop music (modern Nashville like Toby Keith or Jessica Simpson). I didn't know Beer for My Horses was a song, I thought it was a catchphrase from the movie.

You must not be that big of a Willie Nelson fan if you dodn't know that he did the song with Keith 5 years ago. Where were you?

it's a town full of white people that have segregated themselves away from non-white people. This is not an opinion up for discussion. It is a fact.

No, it's not a FACT and your attempt to bully people by telling them it's not up for discussion shows you are afraid.

I lived for years in an area that was (according to the US Census) about 99% white. It wasn't because we "segregated" ourselves. No blacks lived there. Most of the people who lived there were born there and had long familiy histories there. The families had been there from the 19th century. It doesn't take "segragation" or some sort of conspiracy for the area to remain almpst all white. It just takes no blacks choosing to live there.

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[–] kyle-whitworth 16 years ago

My thoughts exactly. This looks like the biggest redneck piece of *beep* ever. My friend and I just could not stop laughing at how stupid the trailer is. The people around us at the movie theater where looking at us like we had lost our minds. We are going to go see it though(for free because we work at the theater and get in for free)just to make fun of it and the people who are actually enjoying it.

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[–] DJPerezMA 16 years ago

ENJOY Riding out on the range and stringing up Mexicans and other "Darkies"?

MIGHT BE A RACIST....
(Thanks for the loan, Mr. Foxworthy!)

------------------------------------------------------------

Kyle: I've got a much better idea; that doesn't "feed the cash cow". Opening Night, August 8, get everyone you know to go to the multiplex where "BEER FOR MY HORSES" is playing,...AND BUY TICKETS TO ANY OTHER MOVIE!

This movie the only one playing in your theater that weekend? Make it a home movie night! Rent from your home video store of choice; making loud enough conversation for others to hear that ANYTHING the store has to rent would be better to watch than that "new Toby Keith Crap"!

Hitting the distributors, and in turn, the creatives (Toby Keith & Crew) with a DISASTER of an Opening Weekend will move this "sick puppy" to the "Home DVD Cut-Out Bin" faster than "Ernest Goes To Concentration Camp"!

Of course, the timing of release, August, speaks volumes about how the distributor feels about this film. Many movies released in August face the "End of Summer" movie-going slump, as folks use August as their last month to get out and do Summer outdoors activities. The Summer Blockbusters have already been released, so now it's time for studios to dump out the dreck from their stock before the Oscar Screener Races begin.

I detest what this film stands for: putting a "smiley face" on 'Vigilante Justice' (NRA must be a sponsor/backer). At the same time, I'm protesting it quietly, and letting the lazy, quiet end-of-Summer days sink this baby.

Peace, Pleasure, and the Pursuit of Happiness!

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[–] kyle-whitworth 16 years ago

There are certian movies that are so bad that they are classic. This looks like one of those movies. Me and my friends are totaly going to be up front tommorrow to rip on this movie and the stupid rednecks that go to see it. I am not against it because I think that the message is wrong (although it is wrong), but because it looks like a horrible movie. I just want to know why any one thought that this movie was a good idea. Plus I am not paying for it so my money is not going to Toby Kieth or anyone else.

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[–] kosmotis69 16 years ago

Blazing Saddles this ain't.
You'd think they would have had a cameo of Flava Flav in
a tripped out Lincoln Navigator wit sum Horientals for rental.

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[–] hapyfish 16 years ago

Toby Keith is a redneck hypocrite.

I hope this so-called comedy tanks even worse than that other so-called movie. TK couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.

Chicks Rock, Chicks Rule

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[–] NewWaveWitch 16 years ago

Look... it's a movie based on a country song. What do you want?!

I don't like country music, I lean to the left... but seriously, don't make something out of this that is just is not, okay? "You're not a rapper, pull your pants up" is bigotry?! Against who, people who wear pants? And where do you surmise that the film is set in segregation, because it's full of white people? Again, COUNTRY SONG.

Do you honestly think this movie was created with the purpose of pushing a racist viewpoint? Nationalism and Americana, perhaps... but these are not bad things in and of themselves.

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[–] therook1057 16 years ago

OH NOES. A movie where the bad guy isn't a white dude. OMG, IT'S THE RACISM, EVERYONE PANIC.

/at least they can still use a Russian bad buy every now and again.

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[–] TobyWayne 16 years ago

*beep* That is not what the controversy is about. Some *beep* is making a movie where all the good people are white and the one bad guy is a Mexican just at a time when white people all over the South are panicking because the Mexicans are supposedly changing their good old segregated way of life. Get your head of your ass. I'm Southern. Toby Keith is expressing what a lot of Southern whites think. This whole movie is an exercise in anti-Mexican vitriol.

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[–] NewWaveWitch 16 years ago

I think you give this movie too much credit. It's not "Birth of a Nation" for chrissakes.

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[–] cade_831 16 years ago

First, the majority of the drug traffic in the south crosses the southern border from Mexico. With that in mind is it really that far fetched to cast a Hispanic as a drug lord?
Second, if you want to talk racism, sexism or bigotry against religion we have a long and distinguished list of recent movies(c. 1990 to present) that we could examine. Where are the positive white role models in Spike Lee's movies? Most of these are critically acclaimed yet cast all whites as racist and ignorant. What's wrong with having an antagonist that doesn't have blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin? Last time I checked bad guys come in all colors and genders.
Third, so what if the majority of people living in a fictional rural town are white. Watch any Tyler Perry project and you'd believe the entire world was black.
Believe it or not there actually are small towns where the population is predominantly white. And guess what. There is absolutely nothing sinister or wrong with that. It doesn't spell segregation it just means that not many people of color have moved there.
Another news flash. Many famous rappers wear baggy pants and not everyone likes the look or the message it sends. Especially law enforcement officers which, if you read the synopsis, is the main characters profession.
Finally, and I would really like you to pay close attention to this, IT IS A MOVIE!!!!!!!!! IT'S SIMPLY COMEDIC ENTERTAINMENT1 DON'T LIKE IT? DON'T WATCH IT!

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[–] s_bigcity 16 years ago

Chill, ma brotha, best thing is to not see the flick again. If the movie is aimed at a certain kinda folk, well, let them go watch it. You go watch something else. Hey, go rent Lone Star with Chris Cooper and Kris Kristofferson. You can't beat that flick if your interested in the dynamics of inter-racial conflicts/tension. Toby Keith is a great singer/performer but did you really, REALLY, think that he's gonna make a movie that comes from a perspective other then his own. Toby Kieth is a white guy that portrays himself as a middle-class working stiff. He's fighting the "good fight" for the down-trodden "redneck" that sees himself as outnumbered and surrounded by anyone of a different race or color.
Does he believe it himself? Who knows? If he does he probably hate every minute of his tours in Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona and a few other states by now.

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[–] downtown_sound 15 years ago

No one has a good answer on why this town is segregated.

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[–] stevenkmiller 15 years ago

Wow, you are an ignorant busybody. Jesse Jackson and the race warlords love people like you. People that love to get upset but hate to get educated.

It isn't a segregated town. There are lots of towns in Oklahoma that have a very predominantly white and Native American populace. Just because you don't see a person of color(by which you mean black)you think that The Man and Mr. Feather are down there oppressin' the brothers. I am from a little town called Chouteau in Northeastern Oklahoma and I didn't have anyone other than whites and Native Americans in my graduating class. So now, according to you, we hate black people and Mexicans. Don't make gross mischaracterizations about a place you can't even find on a map cuz you don't know anything about us. And don't say that you do because you are LYING.

And as far as the bigoted(?) comment about the sagger, that IS what adults think here in rural Oklahoma. And why do you think that is? Because rappers are the predominant public figures with the crack of their ass and top of their drawers hanging out. I don't see business owners in my small town showing us their cheeks, nor do I see preachers doing it. Local law enforcement? Nope. How about teachers in rural schools? No again. Gotta be someone around here showing their asscrack? Nope, nobody except young punks and rapper wannabees. So why doesn't the whole community wear their waistlines around their pubic hairlines? Because none of us want to see it, that's why. So we tell all the adolescent thug wannabees "Pull your pants up...You're not a rapper!" regardless of their skin color. So we try to be segregated in that aspect I guess.

But you keep on preachin' the hate about people you have never met. Keep being the "expert" on places you have never been. Keep the warlords happy. They are the ones that have oppressed you, not Whitey. They are perfectly happy pointing their fingers and saying "See what Whitey is doing down there, that's why you can't get ahead!" and keeping you riled up with lies and misconceptions. And the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton will continue to do that as long as they have willing ears and gullible minds to manipulate. Only when you stop listening to them and start taking a vested interest in your own future will you overcome. But the good reverends don't want you to do that, because if their is no fear, there can be no fearmongering and then they are out of a job. You better wise up, or they will play you for the rest of your life and in the end, the only thing you will have to show for listening to them and not taking care of your own business is a check at the first of the month that is just enough to keep you in poverty and the fact that you wasted your life living their lie. And they are getting fat and happy with you living it. They are getting filthy stinking rich keeping you pissed off about Whitey.

And have you ever been down here and witness how we treat each other? Did you know that there are people of color down here? And we let them stay. In fact, we let them teach our kids and be professors in our colleges. We let them practice medicine and law and engineering here. We let them own businesses here and sit on school boards and and city councils and Boards of Directors. Heck we even had one represent us in Congress. And not just Native Americans, although I know that since they look too much like Whitey, they probably don't count as far as your concerned, but other minorities as well. And while the Tulsa Race Riots were a terrible time in history for the State, now we get along pretty well.

Until someone doesn't pull their pants up.

And don't give me any *beep* about how Barack Hussein Obama didn't win any precincts in Oklahoma. Why don't we run Bobby Jindal(Asian) or JC Watts(Black) or Sarah Palin(Female) and see how many people vote for the minority candidate then. Even black people I know said that Barack Hussein Obama was the wrong black man for the job.

So really all I am asking is to think and learn of what you are talking about before you open your mouth.

But that just wouldn't be you.

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[–] TobyWayne 15 years ago

Why are you hating on Obama because you think he's Muslim? You're entitled to hate him for being a Democrat. But you have no right to bring up his Muslim middle name as evidence of him being a bad person. Stop with this weird high-school chick gossipy insinuation. Show some backbone and openly state that you don't like Obama because you don't like Muslims and you think Obama is a Muslim.

But you know that if you came right out and said that you believe Obama's a Muslim and you hate him for it, people would get real mad at you. So you hide behind little girly cop-outs like criticizing him for other things and constantly referring to him as 'Barack Hussein Obama'.

Oh and p.s: You don't get to LET minorities do jack squat. Minorities have rights and responsibilities just like you do. You're not their boss. You're not their owner. You're not their parent. And you don't get to LET anybody do anything.

You child.

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[–] tanneritekid 15 years ago

You do know that he is a Democrat, right?

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[–] stevenkmiller 15 years ago

Oh where to begin with you...

I don't believe the President is Muslim, I know he is a Christian. He believes in Black Liberation Theology, as was preached in Reverend Wright's church.

I am entitled to hate anyone I want for whatever reason I want, but his political affiliation would be a poor reason to do so. And I don't hate him, in fact I have given him credit on several occasions for being very smart and a wonderful husband and father to the two girls.

And as far as "letting minorities do things," that was sarcasm.

Try to keep up.

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[–] downtown_sound 14 years ago

A possible explanation on how Toby Keith's town became a white only town (except for that one evil Mexican):

Do the white people act in a way that makes other races not want to live there? It doesn't have to be organized oppression by white folk, it can just be simple general backwards ideas about race that make people not want to live in Toby Keith's town. This town is not just lacking in other races, it is lacking in population of all races. Meaning it's short handed on white people too. Lots of small towns in real life are small because white people aren't moving there or staying there. These white people, just like people of other races, don't like the town's way of thinking, and don't want to live the lifestyle these towns offer, so these little towns just get smaller and sadder. Meanwhile the places with jobs and opportunities to offer are the growing cities. These cities are growing because they welcome all races, and welcome both liberal and conservative ideas, not just one rigid particular view. These open communities are thriving and provide good jobs and opportunities for their citizens. Meanwhile the bigoted small towns sit vacant and decaying and it's citizens sit around getting angry at people not like them.

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[–] downtown_sound 14 years ago

Wow, you have a lot of things you are passionate about, including politics and Oklahoma race relations in real life. My post did not ask about real life. It's about a pretend world found in this movie. A pretend world of white people only that does not look like anything in the real world.

I've been to Oklahoma and have lived in the south my whole life. The real life Muskogee, of which Merle Haggard wrote his conservative anthem Okie from Muskogee, is 61.12% White, 17.90% African American, 12.34% Native American, 3.28% Hispanic, 0.90% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.57% from other races, and 6.16% from two or more races. I especially like the mixed race part, since that would anger the conservative white only town members of Beer For My Horses.

I have never seen a white only town as portrayed in this movie, and neither have you: you mention lots of Native Americans where you live, so a movie of your area wouldn't be a white only movie like Beer For My Horses. You speak very passionatley about black people, but to get you back on topic realize I never mentioned black people, and my posts are not about black people. My posts are about this being a white only town. Toby Keith's town lacked Asians, Native Americans, and Hispanics (except for the one evil Mexican criminal).

There are no towns in real life that are white only as portrayed in this film. Even your Oklahoma had an estimated 2005 ancestral makeup of 8.1% African American and 11.4% Native American. What were you saying about education? My post has facts that educate. Yours was full of assumptions (like I have never seen Oklahoma) and passionate yet irrelevant tangents (like the slew of political figures you mention) that are irrelevant to this subject. Somehow you devolved the subject into a rant against real world politicians. Not sure how me dissing an imaginary white world of movieland is offensive to anyones real world political views.

So, I ask why is this town white only?

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