I grew up in small town Tennessee; Jason Aldean's song does not represent my values

On July 14, country music artist Jason Aldean released the music video for his latest single "Try That In A Small Town."

In a statement on the same day, Aldean said he wants fans to remember that feeling of belonging.

"When u grow up in a small town, it's that unspoken rule of 'we all have each other's backs and we look out for each other," said Aldean. "It feels like somewhere along the way, that sense of community and respect has gotten lost. Deep down, we are all ready to get back to that. I hope my new music video helps y'all know that u are not alone in feeling that way. Go check it out!"

The music video and the song itself does create a sense of community, if you subscribe to Aldean's ultra-conservative views.

Cuss out a cop, spit in his faceStomp on the flag and light it upYeah, ya think you're tough

Well, try that in a small townSee how far ya make it down the roadAround here, we take care of our ownYou cross that line, it won't take longFor you to find out, I recommend you don't

Aldean's song creates division, not unity

The lyrics in this song suggest that protests and activism only create senseless violence. It also creates an unnecessary divide between medium-to-large cities and small towns.

But the song does have its fans in Tennessee's GOP.

Tennessee House Majority Leader and decorum expert William Lamberth took to Twitter to support Aldean's song.

"Loved this song since it was released and will continue to fight every day to spread small town values throughout our state in both urban and rural areas. Give it a listen. The woke mob will hate you for liking this song."

And state House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison also shared what the song meant to him in a tweet: "The same people who want to defund the police, let criminals go free, use antifa to destroy public buildings, steal, create mass chaos......, are offended that I will defend myself and my neighbors against criminal acts."

In a tweet, Aldean seemed surprised of the rising backlash against the song, calling the claims that the music video was pro-lynching and shared anti-Black Lives Matter views "not only meritless but dangerous." The pro-lynching claims come from the site chosen for the video, outside a Columbia, Tennessee courthouse where a Black man was lynched in 1927.

On Wednesday, Country Music Television decided to pull the music video from its rotation.

In all of his public statements, Aldean refers to a community that takes care of their own, but the song and video suggest that there is a stipulation that says as long as you don't support BLM or view things differently than the community. Also, how hard would it have been to research the history of the courthouse? Did Aldean know that in the same city three Black churches were recently the victims of racial intimidation?

Small town residents are not a monolith

I was born and raised in Tullahoma, Tennessee (pop. 20,665), a small town in the state. I take pride in the memories I have of fishing at ponds in Decherd, Tennessee (pop. 2,368) and going out to late night bonfires on a warm summer night.

Yet in his music video there is nothing captured about the essence of a small town, yet a narrative that says every person from towns like Tullahoma and Decherd despises protesting.

Let's take small Tennessee town of Pulaski (pop. 8,231) for example, the cradle of the Ku Klux Klan. This community has been wrestling with its white supremacist past for years, and had their fair share of marches and demonstrations. But they came together in the end because they saw each other as neighbors and members of the same community.

For a second, if you could, take away the left or right, liberal or conservative and ponder this question: Is the only way to push our values to fearmonger about the other side?

The right to protest has and always will be the expression of the unheard. And so when a person who holds power attacks that expression, it furthers that silence.

Generalizing that all small towns belie the same aggressively conservative views as you is naive and further adds to our country's divide.

This type of lopsided propaganda is what stops country music from being a genre for everyone, no matter what you believe.

But ultimately it's up to us, the music listeners, to tell artists that we are better than propaganda and we deserve more.

LeBron Hill is an opinion columnist for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and the curator of the Black Tennessee Voices newsletter and Instagram account. Feel free to contact him at LHill@gannett.com or 615-829-2384. Find him on Twitter at @hill_bron or Instagram at @antioniohill12. In 2022, he wrote a series on racial reckoning in the country music industry.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jason Aldean's song does not represent my small town values