Merle Haggard: "I don't think we can blame it all on one black man."

[HiPointDem]

47. Haggard is 75. I doubt he's making commenting on politics his major priority at this time in his

life. He's a redneck, not a racist. They don't always overlap.

"Irma Jackson" is a song by Bakersfield, California-based outlaw country artist Merle Haggard, released on his 1972 album Let Me Tell You About a Song. The song, which was about the then-controversial topic of an interracial romance, was actually written several years prior to 1972, but not released at first because Capitol Records thought it would hurt Haggard's image at the time.


I'd love to shout my feelin's from a mountain high
Tell the world I love her and I will till I die
There's no way the world will understand that love is colour blind
That's why Irma Jackson can't be mine

I remember when no one cared about us bein' friends
We were only children and it really didn't matter then
But we grew up too quickly in a world that draws a line
Where they say Irma Jackson can't be mine

If my lovin' Irma Jackson is a sin
Then I don't understand this crazy world we're livin' in
There's a muddy wall between us standin' high
But I'll love Irma Jackson till Idie

She tells me she's decided that she'll go away
And I guess it's right but she alone should have the final say
But in spite of her decision forcin' us to say goodbye
I'll still love Irma Jackson till I die

If my lovin' Irma Jackson is a sin
Then I don't understand this crazy world we're livin' in
It's a muddy wall between us standin' high
But I'll love Irma Jackson till I die


He wrote it just three years after Loving v. Virgina, which ruled that miscegnation laws were unconstitutional. Interracial dating & marriage still highly controversial when he wrote it. How many country singers do you think were writing songs about interracial romance in the 70s? How much of a risk do you think he took releasing a song like that to a country audience in the early 70s?

You're overanalyzing the *way* he spoke in support of Obama instead of seeing the context and *what* he was saying. Missing the forest for the trees, completely.