Subscribe
Follow Us
The hit song and music video of country singer Jason Aldean, titled “Try That in a Small Town,” have sparked a huge debate across the United States, and now the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is joining the conversation. The Tennessee chapter of the civil rights organization is strongly condemning Aldean, with President Gloria Sweet-Love stating that his tone, message, and imagery used in the song are deeply offensive to people of color, particularly Black people, TMZ reports.
According to Sweet-Love, the Tennessee State Conference NAACP finds the song and its accompanying music video to be awful and racist. They are particularly disturbed by the fact that the video was filmed in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN, where a Black man was lynched in 1927. The lyrics of the song are already considered bad enough, but the location of the video adds insult to injury, bringing back painful memories of racial violence and injustice in the area.
Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones, the youngest Black lawmaker in the state, also voiced his unequivocal thoughts on the song. He sees it as a heinous, vile, and racist composition that glorifies a past marked by racial discrimination. Jones believes that the video's choice of location was no accident, as it evokes a dark history of racial tension, including the lynching of an 18-year-old Black man named Henry Choate in 1927 and a race riot in 1946 where two Black men were killed.
CMT (Country Music Television) has already taken action and removed the song and video from rotation. The Tennessee NAACP chapter appreciates this gesture and considers it the right move given the song's controversial nature and the historical context it evokes.
