Racism, Change, and Country Music

*This post is heavy on personal opinion and includes much more explicit language than typical content from thereviewsarein.com

Saying there’s racism in country music is about the least outrageous thing I could do. But people are still going to get pissed off about it. The history of country music is peppered with racist decision making, star-making, and money-making moments and people. It’s present in the artists, management, labels, and fans. It’s real and it needs to be acknowledged so that it can be dealt with.

Now, I’m going to make a quick stop to say that racism is not only present in country music, so please don’t start with the “what abouts”. I’m also not saying that every racist action or comment is racist with intent (we’ll get to that later), but that doesn’t make it not racist. Cool? Let’s move on.

If you’ve been to country music concerts, or especially country music festivals, even in Canada, you’ve likely seen Confederate flags on pickup trucks or t-shirts or bandanas or on guitars or amps on stage. The “Rebel Flag” has been tied to Southern Pride and tradition and being a badass. I get it. But it’s also (and historically) the symbol of racism and hate and a traitor army that fought against the United States to (in part) maintain their right to own slaves. So I don’t give a shit about the General Lee or new generation country outlaws. The Confederate Flag has no place in an inclusive setting that should be welcoming to all fans of country music.

Hell, even NASCAR got it right when they banned the flag from their events and we’ve already seen people lined up outside of venues waving their flags and a plane fly over the track with a Confederate flag banner, with “Defund NASCAR” attached. Thanks for telling on yourselves y’all.

Note: Also, can we address the fact that a large portion of these traitor flag-waving white people are also the same people that think that kneeling during the national anthem is disrespectful to the American flag. You can’t have it both fucking ways. You can’t bitch and cry about having your Confederate flag privileges taken away and also scream and throw a toddler-like fit about someone disrespecting the American flag. Pick a fucking flag. And if you pick the Confederate flag over the American flag, you’re anti-American. And if you pick the Confederate flag in Canada – you’re picking racism and a side in a war that we weren’t even in.

Back to country music. In the weeks following the murder of George Floyd we saw and heard statements from celebrities from all over, including some from country music. And we saw support for those statements from fans and labels and radio and other stakeholders in the genre. We also saw a lot of bullshit. There were (and continue to be) all lives matter and blue lives matter and “when’s the white pride parade?” and “if you don’t do anything illegal the police will leave you alone” replies. It’s “shut up and sing” and not so subtle reminders of what happened to The Dixie Chicks (we’ll get to them too) in 2003.

The fans of any genre can be the best and worst part of loving music. And these fans are being really clear that they are a bad part of things. And I hate it. I fucking hate that Rachel Berry had to come forward to tell her story about being a Black country music fan and wondering if or when she’s going to be harassed or attacked. And as a late 30s white guy, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to pull into the parking lot or go to my seat or look at the stage and see Confederate flags or wonder if someone is going to say some racist shit to me when all I want to do is listen to some music I love. It’s fucked up.

That leads me to the next point, the good fans. The accepting fans who supported those Black Lives Matter posts and marched and have signed petitions and retweeted links and called for the arrest of the cops that killed Breonna Taylor. That’s all great but y’all gotta keep going.

If you’re going to celebrate Eric Church for telling country music songwriters to put more real life in their songs (Stick That In Your Country Song), you better be supporting Black Lives Matter and the real injustices that come from systematic racism and oppression. And you better not be talking shit about Lady A or The Chicks having changed their names to be more inclusive and less outdated. And if Black writers and singers start telling their stories in plain language like Mickey Guyton does on Black Like Me, y’all better be supporting those real-life stories just as much as the ones called out in Church’s new single.

Note: We can talk about the misstep of Lady A not bothering to find out that Seattle soul singer Lady A has been active for two decades. It’s not a good look at all to see three famous and successful white people appropriate (steal) a Black woman’s stage name. It’s bad. And it does a whole lot of undermining of their original goal. There are reports that the country trio has reached out to the original Lady A to talk about the change to work out some sort of deal. But I do not know what arrangement the parties came to. I hope she got paid.

The names changes of Lady Antebellum to Lady A and The Dixie Chicks to The Chicks have been explained by the groups. They are rooted in wanting to move forward in a more inclusive way. To remove outdated, less inclusive language from their monikers and be part of the change we all want to see. It’s very similar to Quaker Oats retiring the Aunt Jemima brand – and a lot of the same kinds of comments were made.

“This is just getting crazy.”
“When is this going to stop?”
“They’ve gone too far now!”

More bullshit.

I’ve seen the quote, “Privilege is when you think that something’s not a problem because it’s not a problem for you personally…” attributed to Canadian, David Gaider, and it’s a good one. I get that a lot of white people (especially Canadians) don’t give a shit about pre-Civil war era slang or the racist roots of Dixie or the Confederate flag or any of it. But that doesn’t make it any less important. So suck it up.

Supporting Black artists, Black fans, and Black people, in general, does not mean supporting them and anti-racist change until something you like changes or someone points out that something you like is kinda racist. Every “this is too much” comment is just different words for “the thing I like isn’t racist because I’m not racist and if you’re saying it’s racist then you’re saying I’m racist” in fewer words. BUT GUESS WHAT – that’s not what it means and you’re allowed to embrace the change and move forward with it and that’s fine. You’ll be fine, it’ll all be fine and hopefully, there will be a few less outdated and racist-y things passed down to the next generation. Even if they aren’t passed down with malice or racist intent.

This is the time to acknowledge that there are still things in our 2020 world that aren’t okay. They weren’t okay ever, but they were excused or nobody pushed back or they were just accepted. And it’s okay to admit that we’re learning how to be more inclusive and caring and open to new ideas of what is problematic. We have all learned things in our lives that are counter to what we once thought was right or true or okay. We can keep doing that. I believe in us as a whole.

Another part of this hits close to home for me because it’s about covering and promoting and playing Black artists in country music. There are a handful of Black singers that country fans know off the top of their heads, and I’m no different. We’ve covered/written about Darius Rucker, Kane Brown, Tebey, Jojo Mason, Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton, and Sacha. But maybe I need to do more of it. I’ve interviewed Tebey, Jojo, and Jimmie, but I’ve never reached out to ask about the rest or others like Milton Patten, Brittany Howard, BRELAND, and Jake Blount, among others. We’ve talked about shining a spotlight on Black, Indigenous and POC artists with more regularity on this website – and that means working harder to find great artists and songs and stories that might not come from our regular channels. And that’s across all genres. We know we can do more and be better and we’re going to do that.

Racism exists in country music. It exists in America. It exists in Canada. Sometimes it’s overt and angry and gross and caught on camera. Sometimes it’s systemic and an afterthought or like I said before, without intent. But it’s still there and it’s still real. And whether it’s anti-Black racism or anti-Indigenous racism, or any shitty actions or words towards any BIPOC folks it’s unacceptable, and it’s gotta stop.

We can be better. We can all be better. It’s time to stand up.

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Joshua Murray

creator of content, daddy blogger, writer, coffee drinker, fan of the Batman. proud mo bro. prouder dad.