Is Jason Aldean a racist?
His small town song contains controversial content.
26-30, F
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bijouxbroussard · F
If you really want to know, you can tell by who supports him.
But much of the criticism around the video has less to do with these clips than its setting: The Maury County Courthouse building in Columbia, Tenn., which serves as an American-flag-draped backdrop for Aldean and his band.
The landmark was the site of race riots in 1946 as well as a 1927 lynching in which a white mob pulled an 18-year-old black man, Henry Choate, from jail and dragged him through the city by car, according to several media reports, including one detailed account from The Washington Post.
Choate had allegedly confessed to attacking a 16-year-old white girl "to protect his life," even though the girl "could not positively identify him as the assailant," the Post reported.
On Tuesday, Aldean pushed back hard against accusations he was "pro-lynching," saying such an interpretation "goes too far" and is "dangerous."
"There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it," he wrote on Twitter. "Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief."
"NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart," he wrote.
The production company behind the videos, TackleBox, also defended the video's location as a popular filming spot, telling Entertainment Tonight that any "alternative narrative" about the reasons it was chosen were false.
Aldean has received five Grammy Award nominations (including two for Best Country Album) for his two decades of music depicting rural, blue-collar life. And throughout that success, he's rarely shied away from sharing his right-leaning political views.
His wife, Brittany Aldean, and his sister, Kasi Rosa Wicks, launched a conservative clothing line dedicated to trolling liberals. Aldean defended dressing his children in anti-Joe-Biden attire and himself for wearing blackface as part of a 2015 Halloween costume. He was spotted golfing alongside Donald Trump and delivered an impromptu performance at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Aldean was performing on stage as the night's closing act when the shooting began. Six months later, he tiptoed through the refreshed gun control debate, saying in an interview that tragedies shouldn't be used as fodder for political arguments, but ultimately agreed that it was "too easy to get guns" in the U.S..
Gun control advocates are among the song's loudest critics, saying "Try That in a Small Town" glorifies a dangerous eye-for-an eye ethos.
Shannon Watts, founder of the group Moms Demand Action, called it an "ode to a sundown town" that suggested "people be beaten or shot for expressing free speech."
Others said the song's hints at violence were clearly racial dog whistles, zeroing in on the song's portrayal of protests like flag-burning. Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, a Democrat, summed it as a "heinous song calling for racist violence."
Sheryl Crow and Margo Price are among the musicians who've spoke out against the song. But others, like Travis Tritt and Blanco Brown described the reaction as unfair social commentary.
Political commentators on the right have have held up the country music canon, and Aldean in particular, as a loudspeaker for under-appreciated conservative values.
2024 GOP primary contenders like Trump, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis all defended the artist, with DeSantis saying: "When the media attacks you, you're doing something right."
The landmark was the site of race riots in 1946 as well as a 1927 lynching in which a white mob pulled an 18-year-old black man, Henry Choate, from jail and dragged him through the city by car, according to several media reports, including one detailed account from The Washington Post.
Choate had allegedly confessed to attacking a 16-year-old white girl "to protect his life," even though the girl "could not positively identify him as the assailant," the Post reported.
On Tuesday, Aldean pushed back hard against accusations he was "pro-lynching," saying such an interpretation "goes too far" and is "dangerous."
"There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it," he wrote on Twitter. "Try That In A Small Town, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief."
"NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart," he wrote.
The production company behind the videos, TackleBox, also defended the video's location as a popular filming spot, telling Entertainment Tonight that any "alternative narrative" about the reasons it was chosen were false.
Aldean has received five Grammy Award nominations (including two for Best Country Album) for his two decades of music depicting rural, blue-collar life. And throughout that success, he's rarely shied away from sharing his right-leaning political views.
His wife, Brittany Aldean, and his sister, Kasi Rosa Wicks, launched a conservative clothing line dedicated to trolling liberals. Aldean defended dressing his children in anti-Joe-Biden attire and himself for wearing blackface as part of a 2015 Halloween costume. He was spotted golfing alongside Donald Trump and delivered an impromptu performance at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Aldean was performing on stage as the night's closing act when the shooting began. Six months later, he tiptoed through the refreshed gun control debate, saying in an interview that tragedies shouldn't be used as fodder for political arguments, but ultimately agreed that it was "too easy to get guns" in the U.S..
Gun control advocates are among the song's loudest critics, saying "Try That in a Small Town" glorifies a dangerous eye-for-an eye ethos.
Shannon Watts, founder of the group Moms Demand Action, called it an "ode to a sundown town" that suggested "people be beaten or shot for expressing free speech."
Others said the song's hints at violence were clearly racial dog whistles, zeroing in on the song's portrayal of protests like flag-burning. Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, a Democrat, summed it as a "heinous song calling for racist violence."
Sheryl Crow and Margo Price are among the musicians who've spoke out against the song. But others, like Travis Tritt and Blanco Brown described the reaction as unfair social commentary.
Political commentators on the right have have held up the country music canon, and Aldean in particular, as a loudspeaker for under-appreciated conservative values.
2024 GOP primary contenders like Trump, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis all defended the artist, with DeSantis saying: "When the media attacks you, you're doing something right."
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bijouxbroussard · F
@BlueGreenGrey Oh, doesn’t he ? But no clue why people are upset…
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