In 1927, Henry Choate, an 18-year-old black man accused of assaulting a white girl in Columbia, Tennessee, was snatched from his cell by a white mob. He was beaten and dragged by a car across the city before his remains were hung from the balcony of the Morley County Courthouse. The next day, the New York World headlines read:The courtroom is the lynching gallows”

And that’s where country singer Jason Aldean chose the video for “Try That in a Small Town,” a song that sounds like an anthem to vigilante violence. He uses a montage of news clips to confuse armed robbers and car robbers with protesters against police violence. he sings:

yeah, let’s try it in a small town

See how far you go down this road. ”

here we do our own thing

You cross the line, it won’t take long

For you to know, it is recommended not to

try it in a small town

Aldean also accuses some of the unnamed “them” of threatening to “bring down” the guns. That’s an amazing quote from a man on stage at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in 2017. He is the man who was shot in the hotel overlooking the concert venue. slaughtered 60 and wounded over 500.

CMT, the country music channel, is currently Video taken out of rotation. on social media aldean said He claims that his songs are “lynch-defending” and that they are “not only worthless, but dangerous”. But the danger is that in countries where the greatest terrorist threat exists, white supremacist violenceAldean will release songs and videos praising extrajudicial violence against the backdrop of actual lynchings. But this is how white nationalism was normalized.

Of course, nothing new about white nationalism. It’s a corrosive thread that has always been part of America’s DNA. But modern white nationalism began in 2015 when Donald Trump descended the Trump Tower escalator to denigrate Mexican immigrants. It has become the norm as many have been fooled by the lie that President Trump is exploiting “economic instability” rather than racism and white supremacy. (it was everytime racism and white supremacy. )

And it continued to become the norm even after Trump took office, twisting as the mainstream media debated whether a racist-spitting president should be called a racist, and those who criticized it were accused of doing “all about race.”

Remember what Trump supporters used to say. “Trump says what others think”. Many now feel empowered to shout equally mean things about blacks, Jews, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and those below them who they deem undeserving of rights.

In last week’s House debate, Republicans said: Eli Crane The Arizona man used the phrase “people of color,” a moldy derogatory term that pops up casually in conversation. And only when the pressure builds up, Senator Tommy Tuberville of AlabamaThose who continue to jeopardize military preparations In his attempt to overturn the Pentagon’s abortion policy, stop defending white supremacists, and finally stop calling them white supremacists—”racist’” Tuberville changed the conversation, but perhaps his mind wasn’t.

Not unexpectedly, the backlash to Aldean’s song made it popular among conservatives. on Twitter William Lamberth, the Republican Tennessee legislator said, “The mob who woke you up who liked this song will hate you.” America’s problem is not the so-called awakened mob. White supremacists are so comfortable and normalized that they don’t even care about wearing the hood.

Renee Graham is a columnist for The Globe. You can contact her at renee.graham@globe.com. follow her on her twitter @Lenny Graham.