Small Town Justice?
Those who refuse to learn about the past often perpetuate its mistakes.
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 Black 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 Hunt Biden Laptop has produced, there is no there there.
The challenge becomes finding such spots in the South…
At some point “I didn’t realize this was wrong or the case” cannot be an excuse an adult should use.
Given that the artist in question unironically dressed in blackface for a Halloween Party in the year of our lord 2015 (well into his thirties) and defended the action by saying,
I think it’s fair to see him as all but weaponizing ignorance in the service of racism. Or at best, it’s monetizing white resentment. If circumstances were reversed, his defenders would refer to these activities as “race hustling.”
Also, it’s worth noting that while Aldean said, “[the song] refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up” he didn’t grow up in a small town. He somehow managed to find that community in the metro area of Macon, Georgia.
In my post yesterday or the day before, on another thread, I commented on the casual racism that I see so often prevalent in the South. This is a perfect example of that. Anyone who knows even a little bit about the history of that part of the South knows that this video isn’t even a Dog Whistle. It’s a Dog Trumpet!
Yesterday in Cincinnati, Jason Adlean said this, “It’s been a long week. What I am is a proud American. I love our country. I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this stuff started happening to us.” If you’re a black or brown person, you don’t want to go backwards. This is a Dog Trumpet. What I hear when Jason Aldean says what he said yesterday is “I love America. But I liked it more when black and brown people knew their places, and we, as whites, could say and do what we wanted to them.”
Fuck him.
As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up in a small town. It’s true that small towns don’t have riots, per se. There aren’t enough people.
On the other hand, they have robberies. They also have beatdowns. I got one. A good ol’ boy kicked me right in the balls for no reason other than “you sure looked funny”.
I think the low pop density makes people a bit reluctant to call in the cops. It has to be pretty flagrant to get institutions involved. As often as not, someone will think “he had it coming”. If this sounds awful, there is also a lot more positive engagement with one’s neighbors and community.
All those “good ol’ boys” keeping things together aren’t actually making the place better. They are keeping it better for them. But yeah, they often are spoilin’ for a fight.
I think he struck gold. His fan base is fairly right wing, and now he has liberals mad at him and the right wing media praising and defending him. He wanted to troll right up to the line with some ambiguity of intent and he did.
If he knew better, he still would have done it. And if not him, someone else would.
Who cares… the good ole boys in small towns are addicted to meth and their daughters are crack whores.
I guess they did try it…
Perhaps. But I guarantee that someone on the team at the label knew. I’ve worked in PR for decades, and this is basic due diligence stuff, at the very bottom level. You don’t select a location for a music video, particularly for a song about these topics, without doing your homework.
But here’s the thing: despite the words and ALL OF THE IMAGERY used in that video, this twerp of a country music singer is insisting that neither the song nor the video “have anything to do with race.”
Either he’s a moron or he believes his fans are morons. Or both.
A higher level of understanding among the general public would indeed ruin the plausible deniability that is necessary for this song to work as intended:
1) to normalize very thinly disguised racism (because racism that isn’t sufficiently disguised will backfire)
2) to rile up the libs because of the song’s racist connotations
3) to rile up the libs some more by claiming ignorance and accusing them of being overly sensitive snowflakes
All this, if course, to make the singer’s ideological opponents feel powerless and, conversely, to make his supporters feel more powerful.
The latter will lap that shit up because it makes them feel gooood.
Sounds like the front page of the Sullivan Independent News.
I hear you barking Jason, but I guarantee you ain’t got no bite.
He’s living in an imaginary world* with his imaginary courage** among his imaginary friends.***
* I don’t know any small towns that don’t have all the problems a big city just in smaller proportions.
** I wonder how many times he has stood apart from the crowd?
*** Hangerons are not friends.
Prior to reading this article, all I’d seen about this song was a headline on NPR. Based on the song’s title alone, I thought it might be one of the “woke country” or whatever they’re called songs about being gay, or getting an abortion, or, these days, going to a public library.
I prefer this version
Seeing as how his wife is full on Qhead and he co-owns a hunting company with a Duck Dynasty alum, I would bet a bill he put this dumb ditty out there with the intention to pi$$ decent people off and please his small-minded fans. He sure doesn’t seem to mind playing dumb about it. He has a real talent for it, in fact.
@becca: @Jen: Still, I gots to admire his ability to stick to his story by playing dumb (and I think it’s the same self-nonrefective denial that Eddie was referring to yesterday)–“Why ah ain’t got a racist bone in muh body, no huh.”
He and his fans, aren’t idiots. They stickin to the story. Just an unpleasant coincidence, you understand. No intention at all. (Just bone deep natural.)
I remember when Sarah Palin said that small town were the real America.
413 people were shot, 60 killed, at a Jason Aldean performance. That gun his granddad gave him didn’t do shit. (I guess it’s the gun one of the four(!)* songwriters’ granddads gave them)
Admittedly, it was not in a small town, it was just someone bringing their White-on-White violence to the big city.
——
*: That seems like an excessive number of song writers.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
It’s all soft tissue racism.
A-holes are going to be a-holes. And sometimes you just need to let an a-hole be an a-hole. For about a dozen reasons, this guy seems like an a-hole. Meh. Life goes on.
Where I get worked up is that — the party of supposed personal responsibility — rallies around every a-hole and insists they are actually a hero, insulating them from any actual consequences of being an a-hole and instead rewarding the behavior. And we get more a-holes.
Ugh, must everything turn into a skirmish in the culture war? Good PR move by Mr. Aldean, as few would have noticed this rote, derivative, forgettable tune but not for the overwrought video. He’ll cash in handsomely as horrified liberals take the bait and MAGA rushes in to circle the wagons.
Certainly, some very visible BLM or BLM-adjacent events devolved into rioting and destruction, fueled by hoolomigan opportunists, general anger, and extremist so-called antifascists.
Left out of the right-wing narrative is that this unlawfulness was also fueled by opportunistic right wing extremists — Boogaloo Boys, Proud Boys, and the like — who used BLM protests as a cover to light fires, attack (and kill) officers, and incite violence.
Thankfully, most BLM events that summer — the vigils and marches etc — were boring and without incident. Maybe why belaboring the rioting did not help Trump electorally as much as he’d have hoped.
He has a pretty darn good guitar player, have to give him that.
The song played as score to video of cops getting beaten on of 1/6 should be forthcoming. The obvious retort.
@DK:
I thought it might be the underlying message of “under my presidency, America has begun tearing itself apart” — it’s not a great message for most people.
I live semi-rural but my nominal town has a population of about 3,000. Grew up mostly in small towns. This is all bravado BS. Some of those guys like to dress up in camo and pose with their guns but few actually served in the military and few have ever actually risked their lives other than driving drunk. If someone actually burned a flag in a bar that might be at risk but outside of a bar you would be pretty safe.
If it bleeds it leads and big cities have more crime overall so that’s where we hear about it bur when you adjust for population and put smaller towns on the list there are plenty of smaller towns in the top 100 list for violent crime.
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/blog/top100dangerous
Steve
@steve:
In one of his books the normally odious Charles Murray made a statement, backed by some data, that at comparable levels of poverty inner city and rural populations are all but indistinguishable statistically. He was using primarily violent crime, rates of incarceration, and usage of some form of welfare IIRC.
I’ve got to say, I’m not sure why anybody would think this was/is about race.
Republicans just love these culture wars.
@DK:
Interesting take. And both a good call and a good question. Lots to ponder: Q1–Does Aldean have the awareness it would take to drive this PR move? If not, who did and what prompted them to decide this?
Strange, but Tim Scott doesn’t seem to have joined in telling us what a great song it is.
@steve:
My high school in Los Angeles – grades 10-12 – had 3700 students to start the school year when I was a senior (1977). There was another high school less exactly 2.1 miles away which had another 4500 students at the same time, but they were a Junior and Senior High school combined. I just checked on Google maps. And my school wasn’t the biggest one in the city.
Our upbringings could not have been more different.
So, if you visit a small town, you should carry a big effing gun?
Considering how common and pervasive lynching (and other similar types of racial violence) were, one might find it difficult to locate a prominent public place that wasn’t a site for this kind of violence.
@DK:
I had never heard of Aldean and only learned of this controversy here and in a comment thread at Matt Ygelesias’ substack. I directionally agree with your view here. The whole thing seems dumb and the controversy only benefits Aldean and online culture warriors.
@Andy:
It would be nice (or, at least, socially useful) if this fact was more well-known.
It also suggests that perhaps the imagery in the video is simply inappropriate as a general matter.