Jason Aldean is making waves in the media after his music video for Try That in a Small Town was removed from Country Music Television (CMT).
The song has been accused of sending a “pro-lynching” message, coupled with the fact that the music video was filmed at the site of a 1927 lynching.
The network hasn’t officially explained why the music video was pulled, but that hasn’t stopped everyone from talking about it, including the ladies on The View.
For them, they had a split table as to who thought it wasn’t done maliciously and who believed that Jason knew what he was doing the entire time.
Sunny Hostin staunchly believes that Jason Aldean knew what he was doing, while the other ladies weren’t so sure.
Keep reading to find out what each panelist had to say about this hot topic.
The View split on Jason Aldean’s song
“I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt that his intention was not to stoke division, glorify violence or racism,” Alyssa Farah Griffin said.
She admitted that some of her family and friends related to the song, but she still found a negative connection with it: the song reminded her of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, “who got shot for doing nothing wrong.”
She added, “I think if people of good faith can see both sides, they can see there is an issue with this song because of what it means to a lot of communities, but there is an issue of violence, of looting, or rioting.”
And Whoopi Goldberg interrupted, “Yes, but why are you linking it to Black people?”
“That’s the issue. The imagery [in Aldean’s video] is what becomes very problematic,” Alyssa replied.
Joy Behar agreed that his lyrics were “divisive and provocative” but added, “I defend his right to do this video. Because they can’t censor me, they shouldn’t censor him, either.”
Sara Haines gave him more benefit, noting, “Maybe he doesn’t consciously realize why a lot of people are not okay with this song.”
By this point, Sunny Hostin was fed up.
Sunny Hostin calls out Jason Aldean for an alleged racist message in his song
Although she doesn’t believe in censorship, Sunny revealed, “I’m actually not gonna give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Jason’s hometown is Macon, Georgia, and based on her own experiences there, Sunny refuses to believe that he didn’t know what he was doing when he wrote the song and filmed the video.
“It is one of the most racist places in this country,” Sunny said. “So don’t tell me that he knew nothing about what that imagery meant.”
She even called out her mother in the audience, and recalled, “My mother and father, because they were an interracial couple, were run out of South Carolina by the KKK.”
She added, “This became the No. 1 song on U.S. iTunes. We have a problem in this country about race. And the biggest problem is, we refuse to admit that it exists.”
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.
Aldean is naive, opportunistic, or both. Like Trump, he knows even bad publicity keeps his name or brand out ther.