ACMs Show They Don't Take Racism Seriously by Honoring Morgan Wallen

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by Julian Spivey
The Academy of Country Music Awards held its 57th annual ceremony on Monday, March 7 and with the Album of the Year honor going to Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album the ACM voting body loudly admitted it doesn’t take racism and racist slurs very seriously.
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Barely over a year ago Wallen was the center of controversy when a video of him using the “N-word” was leaked to TMZ just a few weeks after the release of his album. The controversy temporarily put a halt to Wallen’s career with many radio stations pulling his songs from airplay and he was deemed ineligible for ACM and CMT Awards in 2021 and from any non-collaborative categories at the CMA (Country Music Association) Awards.

Despite radio and these organizations putting the artist on hiatus his album immediately skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard albums chart, where it remained for many weeks, and became 2021’s highest-selling album. While those in charge of radio plays and country music awards penalized Wallen for his racist slur his fans (and people believing themselves to be sticking up for free speech) screamed loudly, “We don’t care. We like him anyway.”

Wallen has apologized for his racist slur on multiple occasions and reveled to ABC’s “Good Morning America” in July of last year that he checked into a rehabilitation center after his “incident,” though it was likely more for his alcohol problem.

Many to this date don’t feel Wallen has properly made amends for his transgression. Personally, I don’t think a damn thing happened to him. If anything, he grew more popular because of his racism. He said the “N-word” and immediately flew to No. 1. And it’s at this point someone is going to say, “Morgan Wallen is not a racist.” But if you casually use racist language, I don’t know how else to view you.

With the ACMs voting body voting to give Wallen one of the night’s biggest honors (Album of the Year has always been a music awards show’s biggest honor in my opinion) it’s saying we don’t feel his racism was a big deal. We believe he’s made amends and it’s time for him to come back into the spotlight. Even if he never actually went anywhere and had the biggest selling album of the year. It’s disgusting that in 2022 a music award voting body could make such a statement that racism doesn’t mean that much to them. That it doesn’t bother them.

It's also a damning statement to black fans of country music and for perspective black fans of country music. How can you not feel let down by the country music community when it honors as man with such an award just 13 months after he was caught on camera using the “N-word”? Genres of music need diversity to properly grow into the future and with one name read off an award envelope the ACMs said Wallen, and his racism are more important to them than any of those black artists and black fans. That’s despicable.

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