Eric Clapton's SAD Final Act.

[Straw Man]

72. Please show me where I called Helm a racist.

Last edited Mon Oct 18, 2021, 09:53 PM - Edit history (2)

You can't because I didn't. Your other accusation is laughable -- a racist because he's from the South? Where did I say anything remotely like that? Perhaps you are too blinded by rockstar hero-worship to see that Helm made a very bad judgement call in defending Faubus on the grounds of political expediency. When I read that in his autobiography, it hit me like a slap in the face.

Helm admits to a childhood fondness for Governor Faubus, which is understandable: different people, different time, different place. But in hindsight, following decade after decade of the struggle for civil rights, the only possible conclusion is that at a critical moment in history -- following Brown vs. Board of Education -- Faubus came down squarely with both feet on the wrong side of the issue. I repeat: He used the Arkansas National Guard to block the integration of high schools in Little Rock. That was a choice, and one for which there is no excuse.

The pragmatism argument is crap. "He had to do it because ... politics." Bullshit. Faubus didn't have to be Governor of Arkansas; he wanted to be Governor of Arkansas, apparently more than he cared about social justice. At worst, he was a stone segregationist; at best, he was a craven hack who threw morality to the winds to win re-election. Regardless of his motivations, he made a terrible choice. Segregationist is as segregationist does.

Helm likewise had a choice: admit that your boy fucked up, or double down and own the consequences. He chose the latter. Better that he had never addressed the subject of Faubus at all. One wonders why, in 1993, he chose to do so.

I'm not judging Levon Helm for the crimes of his region's ancestors; I'm judging him for his defense of an indefensible action. Can you not see the difference?

For more on Orval Faubus, see Charles Mingus: