There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far.” But of course, musical artists - even those who rely on songwriters for their material - understand implicit meaning, symbolism and narrative. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous. That history makes Aldean’s disavowal of vigilantism ring hollow. In a carefully worded statement in response to the outcry over his song and its video, Aldean said “I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song … and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. Mike Christen/The Daily Herald/USA Today Network Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee, on Thursday, June 17, 2021. As sites where vigilantism and law and order politics were conjoined, such courthouses serve as a reminder that law enforcement personnel often blurred the line between law and vigilantism as well - across the decades, some police officers have moonlighted as vigilantes, whether as members of the Ku Klux Klan or militias or White-power groups. (Around 15% of defendants charged for the January 6 attack on the Capitol have law enforcement or military backgrounds.) The same courthouses where Black defendants could be prosecuted, even executed, on the flimsiest of evidence were the same courthouses where, under Jim Crow, White juries refused to prosecute members of lynch mobs. (After the White power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, a local activist started the Kudzu Project to protest the presence of Confederate statues at courthouses - including the courthouse in Charlottesville - because of the message they sent to nonwhite defendants.) During the era of Jim Crow and lynching, local committees erected Confederate statues at courthouses across the South, to make clear the sort of justice community members could expect. That type of symbolism has been well understood for a very long time. The courthouse where Choate was lynched is a particularly evocative emblem, not only because of the murder that occurred there but because the building itself, a county courthouse serves as a local symbol of justice - and who can access that justice. Jason Aldean sings in his new music video for "Try That In A Small Town." From Broken Bow Records And whether he admits it or not, both Aldean’s song and the courthouse where a teen boy was murdered serve as a reminder that historically, appeals to so-called law and order often rely just as much on White vigilantism as they do on formal legal procedures. These ideas have been intimately linked to country music, courthouses and conservatism for well over a century. He defends it as an ode to small-town America, but it is really a statement of entitlement - an assertion of who is allowed to make and enforce the rules, both as a matter of law and as a matter of extralegal violence. The song is a celebration of vigilantism, though Aldean denies it. But the powerful symbolism underscores the song’s toxic message: that those who step out of line in Aldean’s small town - whether they “cuss out a cop” or “stomp on a flag” - will find themselves facing down “the gun that my granddad gave me.” (Never mind that desecrating a flag and swearing at a police officer are, for the time being, constitutionally protected actions.) There’s no evidence that Aldean and the team behind the video knew what happened on that site in 1927. In the video, an oversized American flag hangs down the middle of the courthouse, so large that it covers the balcony where Choate was murdered. That same courthouse, again festooned in red, white and blue, serves as the backdrop for Jason Aldean’s new music video for the song “ Try That in a Small Town,” a ballad that critics say promotes vigilantism and gun violence.
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