Country artist Morgan Wallen is among the latest victims of celebrity cancel culture for a racial slur leaked in a TMZ video on Feb 2. Wallen already apologized, but now he’s doing it again. When will it end?
In a five-minute Instagram video posted on Wednesday, Wallen apologized for the second time after he had already issued a statement on Feb. 3.
“I let so many people down,” said Wallen in the new video. “One thing I’ve learned already that I’m specifically sorry for is that my words matter, that words can truly hurt a person, and at my core, that’s not what I’m OK with. I know what I’m going through this week doesn’t even compare to some of the trials I heard about from them.”
Nonetheless, no amount of articulate and thorough apologies from Wallen or any other celebrity works to quell the appetite of the left-wing mob because their standard is a blend of Utopianism and left-wing orthodoxy that offers no grace and no forgiveness. That doesn’t mean Wallen is justified in saying the N-word. Shouting racial slurs is unequivocally wrong. It simply means people make mistakes and need forgiveness. Wallen has already owned up to his.
Because of Wallen’s N-word comment outside a bar after a night of drinking, he was suspended indefinitely from his record label on Feb. 3. Prior to this announcement from his employer Big Loud Records, iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media, the two largest radio organizations in the United States, took him off airplay.
Apple Music and Spotify followed suit, removing the artist’s music from the widely listened playlists “Today’s Country” and “Spotify’s Hot Country Songs.” Country Music Television also announced it was “in the process of removing his appearances” from all of its digital platforms.
After learning of Morgan Wallen’s racial slur late last night, we are in the process of removing his appearances from all our platforms. We do not tolerate or condone words and actions that are in direct opposition to our core values that celebrate diversity, equity & inclusion.
— CMT (@CMT) February 3, 2021
“In the wake of recent events, Big Loud Records has made the decision to suspend Morgan Wallen’s recording contract indefinitely,” the label wrote in a statement on Twitter. “Republic Records fully supports Big Loud’s decision and agrees such behavior will not be tolerated.”
— Big Loud (@BigLoud) February 3, 2021
Corporate America has swiftly colluded in archetypal fashion to cancel a celebrity for the grave sin of being imperfect. In their eyes, Wallen and other celebrities are unsalvagable pawns that the cancel mob can use to communicate to contemporary audiences the misguided idea that no one can be saved from their verbal offenses.
Conservatives previously came to the defense of Wallen, noting the double standard for who gets their career ruined and who does not.
“Morgan Wallen said the n-word drunkenly to his friends. Nick Cannon publicly and proudly said that white people are subhuman animalistic savages and inferior to black people. Only one of these men suffered severe professional consequences. Now tell me who has the privilege?” tweeted the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh.
Morgan Wallen said the n-word drunkenly to his friends. Nick Cannon publicly and proudly said that white people are subhuman animalistic savages and inferior to black people. Only one of these men suffered severe professional consequences. Now tell me who has the privilege?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 5, 2021
Rod Dreher, a senior editor at The American Conservative, wrote a column on Feb. 5 detesting our mind-boggling cultural mindset today. He paid special attention to the ongoing Wallen situation, commenting on the hottest trend of trying to eliminate people’s careers instead of providing educational outlets for a young man like Wallen to learn and move forward:
I know next to nothing about country music, but I have learned this morning that Wallen is the biggest new country music star on the scene right now. He is a 27 year old mullet-wearing white dude from Tennessee, the son of a Baptist pastor, who has suddenly found superstardom. He got loaded and acted a fool, saying something ugly and wrong. He apologized for it. But now the Woke, and woke capitalists, are trying to ruin his career. Yeah, that’s the way to teach this young white man the error of his ways: don’t correct him and lift him up out of his sorrow and repentance, with grace, but destroy him for good.
Wallen’s double album “Dangerous” released on Jan. 8 and set the record for the biggest first day for a country music album ever and was the most pre-added country song on Apple Music of all time. It has remained on the U.S. Billboard 200 for the past four weeks, hitting No. 1 at its debut.
While audiences continue to listen to the artist’s acclaimed music regardless of his blunder, today’s left-leaning institutions have proved they will never be satisfied until cancel culture rips through all levels of society, and they certainly won’t be appeased with repeated apologies.