So, before yesterday I was unaware of country singer Jason Aldean, but a tweet led me down a bit of rabbit hole that led me to, via WaPo, The outrage over Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town,’ explained.
A channel devoted to country music videos has pulled the video out of rotation after accusations that it promotes racism and violence. But “Try That in a Small Town” has also leaped to the top of many streaming charts, and top Republicans are defending Aldean, who insists the song has nothing to do with race.
[…]
The video is made up largely of news clips showing protests, riots and police confrontations in cities — at least some of which took place during Black Lives Matter demonstrations prompted by police killings. Other clips show an attempted convenience store robbery and other apparent crimes.
These alternate with shots of Aldean and his band performing in the public square of Columbia, Tenn. — population about 45,000.
The song starts as follows,
Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk
Carjack an old lady at a red light
Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store
Ya think it’s cool, well, act a fool if ya like
Cuss out a cop, spit in his face
Stomp on the flag and light it up
Yeah, ya think you’re toughWell, try that in a small town
See how far ya make it down the road
‘Round here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won’t take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don’t
Try that in a small town
Other key lyrics include:
Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they’re gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck[…]
Full of good ol’ boys, raised up right
If you’re looking for a fight
In the video, it is pretty clear that all those good ‘ol boys are white (indeed, all the images associated with small-town folk are, to my recollection, white). To be fair, the footage of crime includes whites and a lot of folks with their faces covered. Still, the general racial implications of urban violence are pretty clear.
I also recognize that basic small-town southern bravado inherent in the song, as well as the contrast of the supposedly very dangerous city in comparison to a small town where the locals just won’t put up with all that nonsense (a common narrative in our current politics and in country music).** Of course, reality is a bit different, but who wants to look at data? That’s nerd talk!
I will say this: I certainly don’t think the song is self-consciously pro-lynching, but I will also say that it very much, in my view, taps into the vigilante spirit that fueled lynching. And the imagery described in the video does not help his case, regardless of his protestation. Moreover, the following from the WaPo piece is worth noting:
Some who accuse the video of racism point to its setting in downtown Columbia — the site of historical acts of violence against Black people.
Aldean’s performance backdrop is the Maury County Courthouse, which at times appears to be on fire as images of burning American flags are projected onto it. It’s the same building where a mob hanged 18-year-old Henry Choate from the balcony in 1927. The teen had been accused of attacking a White girl who never identified him as her assailant, and whose mother begged the mob to let him stand trial.
Columbia is also the site of an infamous 1946 race riot that nearly resulted in the lynching of future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.
This small town “full of good ol’ boys,” as Aldean sings, is in his home state of Tennessee, which was scandalized in the 1990s by an annual law-enforcement gathering called the “Good Ol’ Boys Roundup” that featured racial slurs and a simulated lynching.
While Aldean highlighted Columbia and its courthouse in a behind-the-scenes feature, the music video’s producers say he didn’t choose the location, which they portrayed as innocuous.
Now, I am willing to believe that Aldean had no idea about the history of the location. But, I will note, and to bolster points I have made of late, that if there were a generally higher level of understanding about the history of white supremacist terrorism as aimed at American Blacks, and lynchings in particular, maybe, just maybe, videos about vigilante justice aimed seemingly at Blacks wouldn’t be filmed at the site of a lynching.
I would also note that the usage of the news footage in the video is of a piece with right-wing narratives that the BLM protests in 2020 were all just hooliganism and crime. I am not disputing that there were clearly unlawful, unnecessarily violent, and even opportunistic looting taking place. But such imagery used in this fashion, simply as a city v. country way, is ideological and not accurate.
The song, [Aldean] said, “refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up.”
I am sure that this is true. And I am sure that this reflects a belief that good ol’ boys ought to be able to use violence as they see fit to mete out justice. A lot of it is bravado, of course, but it does speak to a general mentality, especially when it is more likely than not assumed by the good ‘ol boys that the main perpetrators of crime are Blacks.
Side note, this quote from his wife gives some very clear insight into their politics:
Aldean’s wife, Brittany, criticized media coverage of the song, saying on Instagram that there should be more focus on “real” stories such as child trafficking.
This is QAnon adjacent/a staple these days of a certain kind of right-wing politics that is not, in my view, based in reality. (To be clear, I agree that sex trafficking is a real problem, but it is not the problem that some on the right-wing infotainment complex want to make it out to be).***
And, I guess, the quality of one’s defenders may speak to what is being defended (although in terms of partisan politics and the culture war, this cuts both ways):
Former president Donald Trump called Aldean “a fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song” in a Truth Social post Thursday. Trump’s rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, had previously tweeted that Aldean had nothing to apologize for. “When the media attacks you, you’re doing something right,” DeSantis wrote.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Aldean was the victim of “cancel culture,” and South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem posted a video defending the singer and his wife as “outspoken about their love for law and order and for their love of this country.” The singer has generally been lauded by conservative pundits on Fox News.
The following is worth noting:
Aldean also noted that he survived a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas in 2017, in which dozens were killed and hundreds injured. “Our community recently suffered another heartbreaking tragedy,” he tweeted. “NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”
Here’s the video.
*Photo is of Prattville, AL, basically a suburb of Montgomery. Since I think that building is about to be converted into loft apartments, perhaps not the best image to fit the theme, but the basic vibe fits.
**Heck, it was 46 years ago that Willie and Waylon were singing that when needed to go to Luckenach, Texas where “ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain.” And over thirty years since Randy Travis wanted to go back to a “Better Class of Losers” (which was to be found in small towns, not that “uptown living”). Indeed, one could fill a book (or three) with country songs extolling the virtues of small towns over the big city. Of course, I suspect the Aldean, Travis, Willie, and the rest live, in the main, not in small towns. Or, they do, they don’t live like the typical small-town denizens and certainly spend plenty of time in various evil big cities.
***By way of weird contrast (via AL.com): Marjorie Taylor Greene shows nude photos of Hunter Biden at Congressional hearing. It is so very strange that the party that is allegedly worried about “the children” would just put such images into the public just for the shock value of it all. Plus, there is something profoundly gross about a member of the federal government using stolen images in a weird revenge-porn usage. Moreover, as I have noted repeatedly in various ways, if this is all that the notorious Hunter Biden Laptop has produced, there is no there there.
