Black creatives in country music feel pressured to remain silent about industry racism

Like other spaces that cultivate cultures of exclusion, country music thrives in silence. Where there is no accountability, the status quo persists. Meanwhile, allegations from outside the industry are easily rejected as uninformed and inaccurate:

Country music isn’t racist. Black people just don’t like it — they have R&B and rap — so that’s why you don’t see many of them in the industry.

And a favorite: How can country music be racist when we gave you Charley Pride?

The Charley Pride reference is particularly telling, and not just because it’s predictable to point to the most successful Black artist in country music history while ignoring the fact that his commercial peak occurred nearly 50 years ago. Critically, Charley Pride conducted his whole country music career under the cloak of silence, never publicly pushing back against the system that embraced him — albeit at arm’s length.

Pride said nothing when Willie Nelson dubbed him “Super(n-word)” and George Jones spray-painted KKK on his car, dismissing both as jokes from friends. Neither did he make public comment when the Academy of Country Music (widely considered the more inclusive counterpart to the CMA) didn’t award him a single trophy during his run of 29 No. 1 singles.

This silence, while counterproductive on a systemic level, is nonetheless understandable. Charley Pride had been allowed to succeed in Nashville; at any point, the grantors of his good fortune could have revoked it.

More than a decade later, the same year Beyoncé appeared on the CMA stage, Pride explained his avoidance of difficult conversations. In an interview with the Dallas Observer, Pride said, “I’m not a coward or anything like that, but I think that with the help of my dad and mom, I just learned to find a way around the negative stuff.” Notably, that interview took place 50 years after Pride’s debut, the headline — “Will Darius Rucker Break Country Music’s Color Barrier Once and For All?” — a stark reminder that no amount of Pride’s pacification could have created a more inclusive industry.

Charley Pride kept silent about his pain, but other Black artists haven’t

While the inclination to “find a way around the negative stuff” is still commonplace in country music, regardless of race, some Black creatives have been more open about their experiences in country music. This was particularly evident after the summer of 2020, when protests for racial equality erupted across the nation and country music industry faced its own reckoning. Even the previously silent Rucker went on record, detailing his personal need to denounce racism, acknowledging the danger in doing so as a Black country artist, and noting that it was no longer okay to “stay on the sidelines.”

These revelations were often met with vitriol. Mickey Guyton, for example, was repeatedly told to leave country music if she thought it was so bad. So perhaps because of this—or the accusations that Guyton was merely an opportunist, using racial unrest to build her career—other Black creatives, particularly those less accomplished, chose Pride’s path of silence.

But we know that for every known slight to Black creatives in country music — the lack of Black writers signed to publishing deals, the dismal spins for Black women at country radio — there are hundreds more unknown: the Black touring musician promoted to musical director, then told he can’t hire any other Black musicians; the Black artist told by a major label A&R that “there’s nothing we can do for you,” only to see that same A&R reinvent herself as a diversity advocate years later.

It matters, then, that Beyoncé spoke up, that she called out the industry that still has considerable work to do in its efforts to be truly inclusive. Because while there are still no certainties about the long-term industry impact of Beyoncé’s country turn, we know one thing for sure: There were Black creatives in country music before Beyoncé, and they will remain long after she’s gone.

In speaking out, Beyoncé represents but one voice. But her voice is louder than most, its ability to cut through the industry’s vacuum of accountability far more pronounced. If nothing else, though — if country music continues to maintain the barriers preventing Black creatives from building sustainable careers — Zora Neale Hurston’s words remain true:

“If you’re silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.”