Well, I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Probably die in a small town
Oh, those small communities
“Small Town” John Mellencamp
I think John Mellencamp sang a better song about small towns.
Jason Aldean, not so much. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t know whereof he speaks. After all, Mr. Aldean reportedly grew up in the city of Macon, Georgia, population 157,000, and spent summers in the Miami-area city of Homestead, Florida, population 80,000.
Then there’s me: I grew up in Snow Hill, Maryland, population 2,100. Snow Hill has one stoplight and is home to lots of farmers, hunters, and blue-collar workers. It’s the kind of town where teenagers have to make their own fun, nothing is open on Sundays, and everybody is in bed by 9 PM. It’s the kind of town where folks speak with a drawl and keep their guns in a display case in the living room.
It’s also the kind of town where there are several offensive colloquialisms for the section of town where Black folks tend to live and where it’s not at all surprising to hear white folks using racial or ethnic slurs in everyday conversation.
My experience growing up in such a town means that I heard the underlying message in Mr. Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” lyrics loud and clear.
His song takes old racial tropes about crime and urban dwellers, adds newer ones regarding George Floyd protesters, sprinkles in some conservative red meat about flag-burning and gun rights, and wraps up the entire thing in a veiled threat of vigilante violence toward anyone who dares to cause trouble in a small town filled with gun-toting tough guys.
It’s worth noting that Mr. Aldean’s home state of Georgia was once a hotbed of racial lynchings performed with impunity. In 2020, a small town in Mr. Aldean’s home state of Georgia is where Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was shot dead by three white residents who suspected Mr. Arbery of burglary. At least in that case, the people who killed Mr. Arbery were eventually convicted of murder and hate crimes.
So when I saw Mr. Aldean’s reaction to the controversy over his song – saying he wants the country “restored to what it once was before all this bullshit started happening to us” – I heard that underlying message loud and clear, too.
Mr. Aldean will be performing at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Thursday, in Columbia, Maryland. How do you feel about that?