Jason Aldean‘s hit song, and its accompanying music video, about small towns in America is sparking huge debate across the country … and, now the NAACP is joining the convo.
The Tennessee chapter of the civil rights org is strongly condemning the country singer — President Gloria Sweet-Love tells us Jason’s tone, his message and the imagery he’s using are all deeply offensive to people of color, especially Black people.
Sweet-Love says the Tennessee State Conference NAACP, as an organization, finds the song/music vid for “Try That in a Small Town” awful and racist.
She adds, in their eyes, the lyrics are bad enough, but Aldean’s adding insult to injury by filming the video in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, TN … where a Black man was lynched in 1927.
Making matters worse — GSL says the KKK has recently been hanging flyers in that town as well, and Aldean’s project is only adding unneeded fuel to a fire.
Sweet-Love goes on to say she believes Aldean’s track is clearly promoting racism and violence, adding Tennessee doesn’t need that — instead, she says the focus of artists should be uniting people, and protecting their children and communities.
While Aldean seems to be inviting rancor … Sweet-Love says he should, instead, apologize now — echoing what a lot of others have said about this, including Sheryl Crow.
As we’ve reported … JA himself has vehemently denied promoting any racism or violence in the song — and says it only reflects the community he’s familiar with … not to mention sentiments he says people he knows share. In other words, he ain’t walking back anything.
CMT has already yanked the song/vid from rotation … and Sweet-Love says TN’s NAACP chapter appreciates that gesture, telling us it was the right move all things considered.