I know y’all have seen it. That song by a country artist where he tries to explain why certain things don’t happen in a small towns and how the video fails miserably at doing so.
I’ve watched the video, or at least as much as I could stomach. The first issue that I have is with the title itself. Just going off of that, there are issues that everyone should be aware of. It sounds like there is a threat of violence in the title. We’ve all been in a situation where a argument turned into more and a person made a threat, and your reply is, “I wish you would!”
You would like to escalate the situation so that you turn something into more than what it needs to be. That’s exactly what this song is about. Hoping that a situation gets to a certain point, so these so-called small town folk can bring out their guns and take care of issues without the help of law enforcement or others.
Sundown Towns
Have you ever heard of sundown towns? Essentially, there are towns across the U.S. that certain people should not be in after the sun goes down. To put it more bluntly, towns where there is a majority white population and the people who shouldn’t be there after a certain time are black people.
“It’s 2023, that type of thing doesn’t happen anymore.”
Lol, I too like to wear rose-colored glasses. Just because something isn’t as prevalent or isn’t as well known, does not mean it doesn’t happen. Which brings my back to the song. The imagery portrayed in the video shows highlights of black lives matter protests and people standing up to the militarized police. Playing those scenes along side random people robbing stores and burning down building creates a a problem. So, you’re essentially saying, protesting is a crime. Its not. The main problem is being unaware of why those people were protesting in the first place.
Sundown towns are usually small towns, like the one this country artist says he grew up and misses. My family sure doesn’t miss those towns. Its amazing the different experiences people can have depending on how you look. Sure, small towns had a sense of community and people looked out for one another, as long the other didn’t look suspicious or different.
The Courthouse
The next issue: Filming the video in front of a court house that has a history of lynching black people, specifically a teenager who was pulled outside by a mob and hung. I would like to say maybe he or his team knew that fact, but really, I just don’t think they care. I know what you’re thinking, “a lot of places in america have a history.” Yes, they do, but not everyone is making a video about a certain topic in front of them. Rappers aren’t going to make music videos about shooting people, in front of the church where 9 church goers were killed. Its ignorant to the situation and that’s exactly how this video looks.
Forgotten Images
What’s really ignorant about the entire video, is how he somehow missed all the January 6 footage available to him. Hmm wonder why? I mean, he did show how some protesters got out of hand at Black Lives Matter protests when they were spitting in the faces of cops. They must have just missed the photos and videos of all the those people spraying police with bear spray, beating them to death, and smashing them in doors. Willful ignorance must be super fun for these people.
