In Jason Aldean’s little town, a black man, Henry Choate, (1) (2)
Was lynched; his killers weren’t pursued, as local papers wrote.
Now BLM folks riot over murders of black men,
And are condemned, for bigotry is like it’s always been.

We should acknowledge that there’s still no anti lynching law,
But George Floyd was killed by the cops, a crime that we all saw.
The Black Lives Matter protests, mostly peaceful, (but not all,)
Were over our continued sin that casts a smoky pall.

Now, “Try That in a Small Town,’ is a music video.
The threat implied is really clear; our black folks need to know,
Protesting murders too much risks their own necks in a noose.
Especially in a small town, they don’t want blacks running loose.

Republican apologists deny what this song means.
Such willful blindness makes one ask, “Is blindness in their genes?”
And technically, the song implies a bullet from a gun,
And not a rope awaits protesters, when small towns are done.

Now listen to the Aldean song: no rhythm and no rhyme,
But anger turning civil rights protests into a crime.
Should small towns threaten angry blacks or listen to their plea…
That all be treated equally, that we should all be free?

What should be tried in small towns? Perhaps try DEI, (3)
A promised goal, yet unachieved; why shouldn’t small towns try?
Our nation’s founded on a proposition, not a threat. (4)
The sin of slavery is still collecting on its debt.

(1) Jason Aldean, a country singer and survivor of the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, just recorded the music video, “Try That in a Small Town.”
(2) In 1927, Henry Choate, an 18 year old black man, was lynched and hanged from the courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee for being suspected of a rape. He was never identified as the rapist.
(3) DEI, Diversity, equity, inclusion, which somehow threaten Trumpists.
(4) …”that all Men are created equal,…” second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. This has been proven to be aspirational, for it clearly was not true at the time it was written. 34/47 signers of the Declaration of Independence were slaveholders, including its author, Thomas Jefferson.