‘This Is A Lynching Anthem!’ Black Lawmaker Rips Aldean Song As CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Points Out Video Filmed at Lynching Site

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pointed out that Jason Aldean filmed the video for his controversial song “Try That In A Small Town” at the site of an infamous lynching and interviewed Black Tennessee lawmaker Justin Jones, who called the song a “lynching anthem!”

Jones is one of the Tennessee Three disciplined by the state legislature for protesting gun violence. The other two were Rep. Justin Pearson — who is Black — and Rep. Gloria Johnson, a 60-year-old white woman who participated in the protest. But only the two Black men were expelled, a disparity that has been flagged by the Tennessee Three and others as a racist double standard.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins prefaced her interview with Pearson by laying out important context for Aldean’s song and picking apart his social media post defending the song:

That video and its lyrics getting backlash, in part because it was, one, filmed at the site of a 1927 lynching in Columbia Tennessee. Aldean did not address the location in his pushback, but he is defending the lyrics, but critics say are racist and encourage vigilante behavior. Aldean responded, and I’m quoting him now, “There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it. Try That In A Small Town for me refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences or background or belief.”

She then gave Jones the opportunity to respond to Aldean, and Jones torched the “heinous vile racist song”:

COLLINS:You know, Jason Aldean, as I noted is defending this video, but I wonder what your reaction was when you heard the song and saw the video?

JUSTIN JONES: Yes. Well, thank you so much again for having me, Kaitlan. As a Tennessee lawmaker, as a youngest black lawmaker in our state, I felt like we had an obligation and a duty to condemn this heinous vile racist song that is really about harkening back to days past.

There’s no accident that he filmed this in the site of the Maury County Courthouse where the race riot happened and where as well as the 1927 lynching of a young man who was 18 years old, Henry Cho occurred. This song is about normalizing racist, violence, vigilantism and white nationalism. And it’s about glorifying a south that we are moving forward from and that we’re trying to move forward from here in Tennessee.

COLLINS: And Aldean, obviously he didn’t write the song but clearly sings it and, look, for some of the lyrics we were looking at them earlier. One of them is, “cuss out a cop, spit in his face, stomp on the flag and light it up. Yeah, you think you’re tough. Well, try that in a small town.” Are those the lyrics that you’re referencing?

JONES: Those lyrics and the lyric that says see how far you make it down the road? I mean, this is a lynching anthem! It’s an anthem that reminds me of the stories of young men like Trayvon Martin, Ralph Yarl, you know, young man Ahmaud Arbery, who were killed by the white vigilantes. I mean, this song is not about small towns, because if it was about small towns, where was Jason Aldean when the Maury County people are fighting for their clean water?

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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