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“Try That In A Small Town” Should Have Been Called “Only White People Allowed”
Jason Aldean might as well have grabbed a megaphone and screamed, “White people only! Everyone else get out! Or else!”
Try That In A Small Town?
I’ve written before about how I was raised in a sundown town and how sundown towns still exist. There might not be signage outside modern sundown towns that read, “Whites only within city limits after dark,” but the townspeople still find ways to push anybody non-white, especially Black people, out of the town. Both my white mother and white stepdad were pretty well-known in my hometown, so I had some immunity (though I still experienced racist BS). However, I saw Black families run out of town within a year or two of moving there.
Country music singer Jason Aldean’s song, “Try That In A Small Town” reminded me so much of the town in which I was raised. The “tough white guy” attitude, the extreme fear of cities, the anti-Black Lives Matter sentiments, the love of guns...sounds like home.
The only difference is my hometown is located in Indiana — the Midwest (sundown towns are located everywhere in the U.S.). The music video for Aldean’s song was shot in Columbia, Tennessee — specifically at the site…
