Morgan Wallen Has Learned Nothing After N-Word Scandal

I amn Five months after Morgan Wallen was filmed using the word N, he completed 30 days in recovery, apologized, and was reported to have met with black music leaders and civil rights organizations. But for all his self-taught education, it is clear that he learned something.

The country music star sat for him the first TV interview since the scandal on Friday Good morning AmericaMichael Strahan to clear the air after the radio stations pulled out his music and his voice recording briefly announced that his contract had been “suspended”.

However, despite the lengthy preparation for this interview, which had previously been filmed and the result edited, Wallen was painfully illiterate at best and, at worst, flat in his sincerity.

Back in February, TMZ videos a drunk Wallen stumbles home after a night out in Nashville with a group of friends. When he tells a friend that he is lowering his words a little, “take care of this mother bird …. take care of this pocket-grief [N-word]. ”

Wallen admitted that he sometimes used slander around a “certain group of friends,” but he used the word too often, denying it. “It just happened,” he tried to explain. “I’ve been around some of my friends and we say dumb things together. In our minds this is a toy, you know? It sounds illiterate, but that’s where it really comes from. And this is wrong. ”

Strachan then asks Wollen directly if he understands the weight and historical context of the racial epithet, and Wollen’s answer is clear.

“I heard some stories in the initial conversations I had after that [using the N-word] just about how people are treated today, ”he said. “I didn’t see it with my own eyes, it was a pain or that slight feeling, whatever you felt.”

For a 28-year-old, to pursue life, especially after the events of 2020, when America counted on racial injustice and police brutality against black people in the aftermath of George Floyd’s assassination, and admits that he just “heard some stories. “about the historically recorded discrimination against black people and why the use of obscene words is disgusting, surprisingly embarrassing.

Strachan must have been equally astonished, for he then patiently explained to Wollen why these words were harmful, and pointed out that it was commonly used to dehumanize black people, especially slaves, and during the time of Jim Crow.

“If you dig deeper, [it’s] a word that many blacks have heard before terrorism, beatings, or even possible killings, Strahan said. “I was called that. It drives you crazy, makes you angry, and never makes you feel good. ”

Strachan once again asked Wallen if he now understood why this slander “makes black people so uncomfortable.”

“I don’t know how to put myself in their shoes because I don’t,” Wallen suggested. “But I understand, especially when I say I use it playfully or something else, ignorantly. I understand that it should sound like, you know, like, ‘He doesn’t understand – he doesn’t understand.’

This isn’t the first time that Strahan, who is black, has been placed in an awkward position interviewing a white man who found himself in hot water on top of indecent or racially abusive comments and then came up to him to hunt mea. -culpa do.

In March, long time Bachelor host Chris Harrison spoke with Strachan after Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell is pictured at a South Antebellum themed party. Harrison blindly and repeatedly defended Kirkconnel, questioning whether attending such a party was completely wrong, or just wrong through the lens of 2021. Harrison came on the field GMA apologize and admit that he made a mistake for “perpetuating racism”. After a pre-recorded interview, Strakhan concluded it: “It felt like I had nothing but a superficial response.”

In another moment of the 7-minute interview, Wallen recounted his trip to Atonement and said he went for a 30-day recovery. “I spent a while in San Diego, California, just trying to figure out why I’m doing this,” he said. “Do I have an alcohol problem? Do I have a deeper issue? ”

He also said he has met with the Black Music Coalition (BMAC) and Black music leaders, including Eric Hatcherson and Kevin Liles. Wallen said he received $ 500,000 from the increase in music sales and donated the money to several civil rights organizations, including BMAC.

BMAC and the NAACP did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment to confirm that it was donated to the organization on behalf of Wallen. The ACLU said it would not disclose its donors and would not disclose if anyone met with the organization’s leaders.

Previously, Wallen blew up a meeting with NAACP President Nashville Cheryl Guinn after his team reportedly agreed to a sit-in following the video.

But perhaps a shining example of Wallen’s refusal to actually reflect what he said and learn from his mistakes was when Strahan asked if he believed there was a broader problem in country music and when it came to race.

The question behind Strakhan pointed out that Wallen’s music streams had grown “more than 500 percent” as fans gathered around him in support.

Wallen suggested that “it looks like that,” before adding quickly, “I didn’t really sit down and think about it.”

It’s a clear demonstration that Wallen didn’t take the time to reflect and understand how this ignorance plays out in his field, which statistically few black artists do. with only 0.5 percent of the music played by colorful artists on the country’s radio. The country’s music has long faced a wide range of racial challenges. And during important protests last summer, there was a marked shortage of artists in the industry who spoke out against white supremacy..

For Wallen, who has been reluctant to ask the question after reports have spent the past five months studying for him, this is a sign that he has learned something. Instead, he just wants to return to the good graces of society, even if it means empty apologies and rotten words.

“I never do anything, you know, everyone is happy,” Wallen said for a moment. “I can only come and tell the truth, and that’s all I know.”