The Wallen Scandal: A Second Chance
The social impact of canceling a man for his missteps
On February 2nd of this year, Country singer and star Morgan Wallen was caught using the N-word. By now, the story has ran through so many news cycles, it’s almost not even worth bringing up. But as Wallen has been in the crosshairs of social keyboard warriors, talk shows, record labels, and music awards, there seems to be something sinister underlying the entire scandal.
Knee-Jerk Separation
It was late on the night of the incident, and Wallen and company were getting back from a night of partying. On the video, he can be seen handing off his friend to said friend’s girlfriend, telling her to take care of him. It was here that Wallen let slip the N-word, dropping the verbal miscue with an A on the end. Drunk, stumbling, and in the company of his fellow dudes, Wallen had reverted to a casual, uncaring, inattentive jargon.
This isn’t to excuse his behavior, this isn’t to state the word’s use is permittable— it’s most definitely not. However, following the release of the video, Wallen was immediately suspended from his record label contract, his music was removed from many radio stations, Spotify omitted his songs from their curated playlists, and the Academy of Country Music declared him as ineligible to receive any awards at this year’s annual event. His booking agent, WME, removed him from performance lineups as well. Effectively, just two days after the video was released by TMZ, the singer’s career looked like it was burning to the ground.
In an interesting Streisand effect, his album sales began to soar as a result of him being expunged from streaming platforms and radio. It seemed to be a real-world example of how all publicity is good publicity. He most likely gained many new listeners who had never previously heard his music, but enjoyed the tunes once they saw him in the news cycle, and did a little Googling of their own.
Understanding Influence
Since then, the country star has returned to the scene, participating in interviews with Good Morning America, completing a round of rehab, and admitting his faults, promising to do better in the future. Promising to be more aware of how his words impact others and how their power can be wielded.
On a fundamental level, it isn’t okay to throw around such destructive language, as Wallen did on the night of February 2nd. Especially when you have the eyes of the world on you, watching your moves. Children looking up to you, young singers viewing your habits and interactions with such a high level of scrutiny. Standing on that podium of influence should never be taken lightly — something that Wallen has admitted he didn’t think much about, but has since grappled with.
The Impossibly Perfect Consumer
That being said, this entire scandal has been disgusting. Wallen has been dragged through the mud, had his entire career called into question, lost countless record opportunities, seen his name tarnished, and received his fair share of death threats in the process. He was target-interviewed by Michael Strahan, where the impression is given that Wallen is to be the metaphorical Jesus Christ of the white population, crucified and condemned for a simple misstep. For using a word that is negative and demeaning — but completely glorified by hip-hop rappers and other artists.
I refuse to support the use of the word, but I also refuse to support the public condemnation and destruction of an individual that used it in ignorance or drunken jargon. A lesson can be taught to someone without stealing away contracts, sending death threats, or claiming his art as ineligible for award. Not every part of everything that everyone says has to be mashed in with their identity. How many sports athletes, movie stars, music icons, and political figures have committed heinous acts of sexual violence, stolen money, assaulted someone, or the like — but we have continued to enjoy their product?
If we have to live in a world where we are required to believe in and agree with everything someone says in order to participate in that thing, then we are screwed. If that’s the case, stop ordering thousands of packages from Amazon, they treat their employees like machines. Cancel your subscriptions to Netflix, they’ve had child-molesting actors in their shows before. Leave America, we slaughtered Native Americans for decades. In fact, you might have to fly to moon and live by yourself if you want to find something that doesn’t have some tarnish on it. Then again, living on a moon with no oxygen probably won’t agree with you either.
A Culture of Fearmongering
In the recent cycle of news impacting our music culture and Wallen, Justin Bieber had posted a picture of the country singer’s album cover, saying how much he enjoyed the songs. After backlash against the Biebs, Justin deleted that story, and posted another Instagram clip in the form of a paragraph condemning Wallen’s actions and stating that Bieber himself wasn’t aware of Wallen’s racist comments. Bieber went on to state his complete intolerance of anything racist or discriminatory.
It’s not a culture of education, it’s a culture of fear. As a community and society, we despise the use of fear to rule, we condemn the implementation of scare tactics to control people. Yet here we are, sending a great artist, a human being, death threats for using a certain word in a drunken stupor. Here we are canceling a young man that probably just needed the opportunity to learn, not the chance to be crucified. It’s not a culture of inclusivity and love, it’s one of cancellation and separation.
If we really want to be tolerant of people, really want to appreciate diversity, then we have to start with the hard conversations. What if instead of cutting Wallen out, canceling contracts and removing his opportunities — what if instead, his record label had said they don’t support his verbal mistake, but they are taking steps to sit down and give him the chance to apologize, to learn the history, and to grow? What if instead of signaling their virtue via removing Wallen and separating, they saw him as a human of complex emotions and intelligences?
More Than Our Mistakes
Today it seems that personally, we want to be treated as well-rounded, intricate individuals — but we aren’t willing to apply that same statute to the likes of anyone else. We make ignorant claims like, “How could someone like Wallen be allowed to get to this level of popularity?” somehow completely negating his entire human artistic experience, boiling the man down to one little mistake.
I’ve made mistakes — things that people don’t know about, things that I hope no one ever finds out about. I’ve said things I regret and I strive every single day to be a little better than I was yesterday. It’s a cliché, but only because it’s true. If you’re reading this, you’ve made plenty of flubs too, things you hope no one finds out, things that don’t define you — but instead push you toward growth.
So instead of crucifying a man for using a word we still hear way more than we should, let’s try consideration. Let’s at least make an attempt to be understanding educators. If we can’t do that, then we’re just singing out of both sides of our mouths, thinking we love diversity, while silencing anything that challenges our singular point of view.
