Cancel culture is no match for country music

They got him! Another prominent white male called out by the mainstream media for being racist has had his career destroyed, tossed down the memory hole, never to drawl about beer, trucks, or girls ever again!

Or did they? In January 2021, the 28-year-old, mullet-rocking, cutoff flannel shirt-wearing, small-town Tennessee country music star Morgan Wallen arrived home late at night (or early in the morning?) with his friends and yelled by means of farewell to one of them, “Take care of this p****-ass mother******  — Take care of this p****-ass n*****.”

This drunken incident was caught on video by Wallen’s neighbor, who quickly did his or her civic duty and got the recording into the hands of tabloid TV station TMZ, who quickly did their capitalist duty and broadcast it worldwide.

Wallen’s punishment for uttering the racial slur was swift and severe: radio stations and streaming services silenced his music, his record label suspended him, and he was disinvited to the American Music Awards and the Country Music Awards, where he was set to win many honors.

Okay, you say, we’ve heard this tune before. We know how it plays out: Wallen is another victim of cancel culture, forced to eke out a living in obscurity.

Plot twist!

Fast-forward 10 months, and the Daily Mail is reporting that “Country singer Morgan Wallen had the biggest selling album of 2021 – after he was canceled for using the N-word and banned from awards shows.” His album Dangerous (3 million sales) outsold Adele’s super-hyped album (1.4 million) and blew Kayne West’s new record out of the water (fewer than one million sales).

So to recap: twangy redneck singer uses the N-word in a private conversation; huge national radio conglomerates take Wallen’s music off the airwaves for four months and streaming services refuse to play him (until, of course, they all realized how much money they were losing); he’s banned from every red carpet in Music City; he’s on the verge of losing his recording contract; and less than a year later, he has the most album sales IN ANY MUSICAL GENRE for 2021.

So what gives?

First off, nobody, and I mean nobody outside of Wesleyan University’s Office for Equity & Inclusion, believes Wallen hates black people…

This article was originally published by The Spectator. Read the full piece here.