*In August 2020, the Black Lives Matter Movement had caught fire nationally. Trump, the GOP, and the MAGA echo chamber railed against it. That was expected. But there was also little surprise that most celebrities, especially top talent, big name, crowd drawing entertainers, would be mum on BLM.
There was one exception. Dolly Parton. She spoke out loud and clear about her backing of BLM. She went one step further. She left the quote of the ages on Black oppression: “Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!”
That pungent quote and the sentiment behind it was hushed up, if not flat out ignored. The MAGA Nation folk and Trump especially were more than happy to stay silent. Parton was an icon, a true Southern Belle, and on the surface, prone to be one of their own. So, it was safer to just say nothing. Unfortunately, many Blacks who would loudly applaud Parton for her pull no punches endorsement of BLM, did not know that Parton had taken a strong stance on the movement against police violence and misconduct.
It was simply easier to praise Parton’s well-known, and highly lauded charitable and humanitarian giving and advocacy. Much of that giving, went just as quietly to African American causes and educational needs.
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The same has been true in the wake of her death. The praise almost universally centered on that part of her life.
But beyond her full-throated BLM endorsement, Parton was just as much the racial outlier in other acts that flew under the media and public radar scope. At a time when GOP controlled Southern legislatures and some governors and apologists battled against carting away confederate monuments and in their place honoring civil rights with plaques and statutes.
Parton took another profound step on racial battlefield. In 2018 she scrapped the ‘Dixie Stampede’ dinner name. She renamed it “Dolly Parton’s Stampede.” She made clear why she made the change. Blacks told her that the word Dixie was offensive. She minced no words on why the change.
“There’s such a thing as innocent ignorance, and so many of us are guilty of that. When they said ‘Dixie’ was an offensive word, I thought, well, I don’t want to offend anybody. This is a business. We’ll just call it the ‘Stampede.’”
She didn’t stop there. In her typical Partonesque phrasing she added: “Don’t be a dumbass! That’s where my heart is. I would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose.” Parton’s action did not go unnoticed
Two years after she dropped Dixie from her event, country bands Lady Antebellum and the Dixie Chicks followed her example. They dropped Dixie and Antebellum and now called themselves Lady A and The Chicks.
Parton will be remembered lovingly by many for humanitarian giving, getting on board with civil rights issues, and most importantly saying yes to BLM. This is also the Parton you can bet the bank on that Trump and his bunch didn’t have in mind in their heartfelt praise of her. But we should.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is The Epstein “Distraction” (Amazon ebook and Middle Passage Press)
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MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Dolly Parton’s Cause of Death Revealed Following Her Passing At 80
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