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Correction: Accidental Racist story

Friday - 4/12/2013, 1:50pm  ET

The Associated Press

In a story April 11 about the song "Accidental Racist," The Associated Press reported incorrectly that Eric Weisbard is a professor at the University of Mississippi. He teaches at the University of Alabama.

A corrected version of the story is below:

A country song, assumptions -- and a racial outcry

Can you really be an 'Accidental Racist'? A country song says yes, but many say absolutely not


AP National Writer


So after country music star Brad Paisley released his new song "Accidental Racist" this week, what happened next was hardly surprising: days of widespread criticism about his attempt to detail the challenges facing a "white man from the Southland" and his recruitment of LL Cool J to rap a black perspective.

The song sparked a predictable blaze this week on TV, talk radio and the Internet. USA Today asked if it was an "epic fail." At The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates titled his analysis, "'Accidental Racist' Is Actually Just Racist." More than a few ridiculed it as "the worst song ever."

Some elements of the outcry, however, raise less predictable questions: Where does naivet