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With images of people rioting, burning American flags and assaulting police officers, country star Jason Aldean has courted outrage with his new song and video “Try That in a Small Town.” Perhaps that was his goal, as nothing sells like controversy and press attention, but it seems like a missed opportunity for healing.
The song doesn’t come out and say anything specifically about Black Americans, and Aldean’s video shows a few white rioters and looters along with several who are Black. But one doesn’t need a degree to realize that the song is blaming Black people for these problems and is hiding behind the words “city” and “small town” to avoid using the words “Black” and “white.”
Crime affects everyone in America and happens even in small towns. Many Americans of all races are rightly fed up with crime, from gun violence to a breakdown in respect for law and order. At the same time, many are tired of too many instances of police overstepping and acting as judge, jury and executioner. One can be fed up with crime and also be fed up with the way the police have handled things.
Instead of tapping into the shared concerns of most Americans, Aldean’s song has become an anthem for the far right, and the far left are using it as an example of intolerance. It’s really sad as it could have been a song that unites instead of further dividing this country.
Most people agree that rioting and looting are not the answer to police misconduct. There is no excuse for that type of behavior, and despite the view that Aldean seems to have based on what he sings, most Black people were not supportive of rioters and looters in 2020. As a reporter, I saw many Black residents watching storefronts in their neighborhoods burn with a look of sadness and disgust that summer. I’ll never forget talking to a group of middle-aged Black people across the street from a store that was burning on the West Side of Chicago. One woman said plainly, “These fools think they’re sticking it to the man, but I work there, and now I have no job.” Hardly a victimless property crime, as some tried to characterize that sort of behavior.
That sentiment is precisely what Aldean could have tapped to connect with a new audience. He could have sung about the fears and frustration that most Americans have about crime, but instead, his song is further fracturing this country. He should realize that people who are victimized the most by crime in this country, especially gun violence, are Black Americans, the same group his song seems to scapegoat. The song’s lyrics — such as “Well, try that in a small town. See how far ya make it down the road. Around 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” — are nothing more than reactionary hatred that may incite more violence.
On top of that, his video for the song contains images of looting and rioting that will only add fuel to the fire started by the song’s lyrics. Some of the video was shot in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, where in 1927, the body of a young Black man, Henry Choate, was hanged after he was killed. It has been reported that Aldean did not choose the location and there is no evidence that Aldean knew of its history.
Chicago Tribune Opinion
Like many, I sought out the song after reading about the controversy. The first time I heard it, it brought back memories of Donald Trump imploring his supporters to “knock the crap out of” hecklers during his 2016 presidential campaign, telling them he would pay any legal fees while reminiscing about “the good old days.” Four years later, Trump encouraged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in a riot, this time by mostly white people who attempted to overturn the 2020 election that Trump lost.
“The good old days” seem to be a fantasyland to people like Trump and Aldean. They seem to want to revert to a time like the 1950s, when the baby boom was underway and much of the country was prospering. However, what people think of as the golden age of the ’50s is a Hollywood fiction that was not the reality for many, especially nonwhite families. Simply put, the “good old days” were not so good for a lot of Americans.
In interviews and statements since the controversy began, Aldean seems to be saying that his point is that he is longing for America to get back to “small town values.” Yes, there is something admirable about some aspects of “small town values” when they refer to hard work, honesty and neighborliness. But that is not exclusive to small town America.
In Chicago, for example, the nation’s third-largest city is also a city of 77 neighborhoods. Many residents are proud of their neighborhoods and look out for each other just as they do in small towns. That said, there is a dark side to the “small town” ethos that is not tolerant of anyone with different views, let alone a different skin color.
There’s a long history of that in Chicago, just as there is in “small town America.” Sadly, it is that sad aspect of human nature that Aldean has played into instead of seizing the chance to bridge the divide and bring people together.
Bob Chiarito has covered crime in Chicago for 25 years, which includes the unrest in Chicago in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the unrest in Kenosha after the Jacob Blake shooting for The New York Times and Agence France-Presse.
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