as much as i appreciate the thought behind @MarenMorris
shouting out black women making country music—i cant help but feel how sad it is this is seen as by as a radical racial reckoning in country music.

maren was able to reach the stratospheric rise she has enjoyed not because someone stood on a stage and said “check out maren morris” she was able to achieve success because there is a whole machine in place to make sure girls marketed like her are able to rise.

im not saying maren isn’t talented. but to assume her shouting out black women will have any sort of enduring change in country music is like saying the white person who has a black friend isn’t complicit it white supremacy.

the machine that is country music simply doesn’t consider black women as viable artists. there is no one who looks like us making decision. there are so few doors of entry for black women in nashville. they would have you believe there is no market for black women’s stories.

black women literally have to not only get past the sexist old boys network, we then have to work to be seen as fully human due to the color of our skin. these are massive roadblocks to black women making it in nashville.

so as kind as it was for maren to share her moment with black women—this simply isn’t enough. we need big, systemic change in country music and across the music industry. we need to remove the “gatekeepers” who don’t value our stories or see the humanity in them.

Black women shouldn’t have to wait into he magnanimity of white women to get their voices out. it shouldn’t be up to the good will of one white person to see to it that black women get their due.

anyhow, my friend @AndreaWillWrite covers this beat much more eloquently than i. im just a weird blues goth on the outside shaking my head at all the art being ignored because white supremacy.