The (great) documentary on Tim's early career "Rock'n'roll nerd" tells the story which later inspired this song.
In his earlier song "If You Really Loved Me" there's a part that goes "We go together / Like a cracker and Brie / Like racism and ignorance / Like niggers and R&B". At his second Edinburg festival he was called a racist because of that line, which deeply affected him.
Tim explains the his intentions: "The whole song works on contrast between the innocent and the shocking(...) I make a point that racism is ignorance, so my position is clear; and then I make a point that there's an industry out there (...) that exploits the idea of the 'nigger' as reclaimed by black people to mean someone who cares about money, guns and bitches, and in my eyes it's not a particularly positive reclamation of the word."
The criticism was too much for him. "Trouble is the word is so loaded that when people hear it it's like KHHHKHHHH! and the noise around that word is such that they can't hear anything else. (...) I guess all they're saying is 'you don't know what it's like'. And I don't. So I dropped the word."
But later he used that episode to make this song. This is really about challenging the social taboos, political correctness and about looking beyond the surface. And it was a really too perfect an opportunity to pass. He's a redhead, the word "ginger" is an anagram of "nigger", and so he could turn the tables to prove his point. And he did so perfectly.
The (great) documentary on Tim's early career "Rock'n'roll nerd" tells the story which later inspired this song.
In his earlier song "If You Really Loved Me" there's a part that goes "We go together / Like a cracker and Brie / Like racism and ignorance / Like niggers and R&B". At his second Edinburg festival he was called a racist because of that line, which deeply affected him.
Tim explains the his intentions: "The whole song works on contrast between the innocent and the shocking(...) I make a point that racism is ignorance, so my position is clear; and then I make a point that there's an industry out there (...) that exploits the idea of the 'nigger' as reclaimed by black people to mean someone who cares about money, guns and bitches, and in my eyes it's not a particularly positive reclamation of the word."
The criticism was too much for him. "Trouble is the word is so loaded that when people hear it it's like KHHHKHHHH! and the noise around that word is such that they can't hear anything else. (...) I guess all they're saying is 'you don't know what it's like'. And I don't. So I dropped the word."
But later he used that episode to make this song. This is really about challenging the social taboos, political correctness and about looking beyond the surface. And it was a really too perfect an opportunity to pass. He's a redhead, the word "ginger" is an anagram of "nigger", and so he could turn the tables to prove his point. And he did so perfectly.