A music professor from the Hunter College in New York is claiming that the lyrics to Jason Aldean’s hit song “Try That in a Small Town” promote “anti-blackness.”
Philip Ewell, a professor of music theory at Hunter College, said Aldean’s lyrics are full of racist remarks in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“Anybody really should understand that there’s a strong racial undertone to these lyrics,” he said. “Race is part of the lyrics. I think that’s pretty clear.”
“Someone’s robbing a liquor store — in the American psyche, the person who’s doing that without saying it is a Black [sic] person, right?” Ewell continued.
“It’s just in our minds. It’s supposed to be that way. And when you paint that picture in someone’s mind of someone pulling a gun on an owner of a liquor store, the person pulling the gun is Black [sic]. The owner of a liquor store is probably Asian or maybe white. And there are these racial stereotypes that play out in lyrics like this.”
From Breitbart:
Ewell said he’s listened to some of Aldean’s music and thinks the country singer “is a pretty good artist.” “But it’s just something that kind of comes out in culture, anti-Blackness [sic]. Because it’s part of the founding of our country. We shouldn’t run away from that simple fact.”
