At at time when Oklahoma is getting blistered for so many homophobic and xenophobic thoughts being expressed by our public officials, Toby Keith has managed to up the ante.  In an interview with Glenn Beck, who had been kissing TK’s ass up to this point, the topic somehow shifted to race relations in the country.  We all know that Keith is a redneck, so we probably shouldn’t be surprised that the exchange went this way:

Toby Keith:  Racial issues never seem to change, we uh-uh-uh, we can’t get past ‘em…and so, I don’t have an answer.
 
Glenn Beck:  Now wait a second.  Haven’t we gotten past it?  Isn’t Barack Obama, possibly the next President of the United States, and you don’t see people, you know, uh, saying, ‘Oh!  He’s black!’  I mean, I’m sure they exist, but I don’t know those people, don’t you think shows–I mean, look at the great distance we’ve come in just the last twenty years! 
 
TK:  I think also that black people would say that he don’t talk, act or carry himself as a black person.
 
GB:  What does that even mean?!? 
 
TK:  Well, I don’t know what that means**  But I’m saying that that’s what I think they would say. Even though the black society would pull for him, I still think that they think in the back of their minds that the only reason that is in is that he talk, acts and carries himself as a Caucasian.

Seriously, if we are going to have a musician creating the stereotype of Oklahomans, why can’t that musician be Wayne Coyne?

Now my question for you, dear reader: Sally Kern branded the state as homophobic, and Brent Rinehart reinforced the image.  Randy Terrill made us look xenophobic.  Jim Inhofe does what he can to represent us as mind numbingly stupid.  So, obviously, the next step is to add some good old fashioned sexism.  Who can we count on to step up on that one?

You can find the transcript of the entire interview here. 

** – If this sounds familiar it is because Brent Rinehart answered a CNN reporters question of whether he considered himself to be homophobic with the exact same phrase.