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If you’re not following Dr. Cottom, you’re truly missing out on a ton of phenomenal race, class, and gender analysis (the best Twitter clapbacks too tho).
Her essay prompted me to finally post my (very silly) fanfic on Tracy Byrd and Black erasure in the South https://twitter.com/tressiemcphd/status/1336026469265498116
Her essay prompted me to finally post my (very silly) fanfic on Tracy Byrd and Black erasure in the South https://twitter.com/tressiemcphd/status/1336026469265498116
It started out as this joke while I did my weekly Friday drunk tweet about 90’s country songs: https://twitter.com/r0y__6lack/status/1289764439013515264
The song came on the other day as I was cleaning house, and as I chuckled about my dumb joke, I started wondering if the Watermelon Festival he speaks of in the song actually real.
Turns out, it is. Though it’s not located in Rhine County. The annual festival takes place in Crisp County, GA in a town called Cordele, aka, The Watermelon Capital of the world.
As long as country music has been around, there has always been a barrier for Black people to be a part of this genre (and culture) whether they are the artist or listener. For all people knew, black people didn’t exist in the South that country singers sang about
Back to watermelon fests, tho. The video of Watermelon Crawl would have you believe that the small town watermelon festival was just a yt ppl hootenanny drinkin all the wines, watchin’ yt women gyrate til their boots broke.
But in my search, I found an interesting tidbit about cordele: it’s 65% Black—Which, duh, I know the south has the highest concentration of Black people but follow me here.
Of course the video doesn’t show this. Why would it? It’s supposed to be a fun time for the (yt) family! Well, it was shot in TN at an Irish (read: very not black) something or another anyway.
So how do we explain the line dancing woman in the song? The titular Watermelon Queen. She has just GOT to be Black. And I am *not* going to lean on the obvious stereotype there bc that’s lazy, but there’s no way that she’s just showing him a bland ass line dance
For context: here are the lyrics of that verse. It starts out by saying this is something he ain’t never seen. We can assume TB has seen a line dance, like come ON.
The next part, and what my thesis hinges on is the fact that she rocks back on her heels, drops down to her knees, crawled across the floor, gets back up on her feet and WIGGLES AND JIGGLES* what in the hell that sound like to you. That girl is TWERKING.
A WAP clip for reference. I couldn’t find an exact twerking match, but this is damn close.
So it wasn’t a line dance. She gave him a glimpse into how THEY got down in the watermelon capital. It beat all he EVER saw, mind you.
TELL ME IM LYING
TELL ME IM LYING
To me, it’s much more plausible that Tracy Byrd wound up passing through a majority Black town, stops in for refreshments, and is welcomed in with open arms because that’s how Black people are. Makes for a much better story too IMO.
But this country would need to broaden its imagination to even fathom Black people being “country”when in reality, where the hell y’all think most of that culture came from! Lmao
Anyway, country music is great, I’m so happy more Black Country artists are getting the spotlight they deserve. Listen to them, support them, and go their concerts when covid ain’t a thing. I’ll be dropping my debut country EP mm/dd/yyyy
Also, RIP John Prine, Joe Diffie, and Kenny Rogers.
And pray for Travis Tritt. He ain’t sick or nothin, he just dumb.
And pray for Travis Tritt. He ain’t sick or nothin, he just dumb.
