The Real Deal

I'd agree, but I'd say it was more pathetic than sad. A lot of those people are frat kids, and despite their image, frat kids have feelings, too. They know that college will be their last hurrah, that boring, monogamous, sober lives as financial analysts, insurance adjusters and dentists are all they have to look forward to. And so for one night, they identify with these guys. They see Burnside or Ford and think, "Wow, I could be a badass black dude, drink whiskey and gamble every day, fuck whoever I want, even shoot somebody. I, Whittmore Beauregard Forrest IV, could stay a frat boy the rest of my life, if only I had been born R.L. Burnside."