Mark Wallen is a pretty popular artist in the country area of music. In 2021, he was canceled for saying a racial slur; according to the Los Angeles Times, he said “Take care of this p— ass mother—.” He stated this in a video that was published by TMZ.

After this quote, he goes on to say other words and the N-word. Wallen came out saying that he wanted to apologize and to do better, and that he was very embarrassed and sorry for his offensive language.

I agree that what he did like him inches is unacceptable and inappropriate, but by him using that language so easily and freely shows that it is something that is in his daily vocabulary and that he says it like there’s nothing wrong with it. So I don’t really think that he is truly sorry; I think he’s embarrassed that he was recorded, and it was seen by so many people, and it affected his career.

After the video was released, the backlash was sudden; his label announced that they would take a step back from releasing his album. His record company “Big Loud Records” had made the decision to suspend Walling’s recording contract indefinitely, and “Republic Records” stated in a tweet that they fully supported Big Loud’s decision and that such behavior would not be tolerated.

The nation’s second-largest radio network had then removed his music nationwide at midnight the same day, and they sent out a memo effective immediately that all of Morgan Wallen‘s music be removed from all playlists without exception.

To everyone’s surprise, Morgan Wallen had returned to the 2022 ACM awards after previously being barred from attending after his scandal. He accepted the award for Album of the Year, and everyone was happy for him. He earned nods for male Artist of the Year and Song of the Year, even though he had a huge scandal.

People acted as nothing had happened. The same month that the huge scandal happened, country music fans protested Wallen’s absence from the 2021 ACM awards. They would rent billboards in Nashville that would say “support that boy from East Tennessee!”. 

Wallen said in an interview after the release of the scandal video that he was with some friends, and they always say dumb stuff together, so in their minds it was playful. I don’t think that saying the N-word is being playful when you’re around friends, and if you say dumb stuff, it’s doesn’t involve racial slurs. Because of this, I think that what he did was completely wrong. 

Gabriel Murillo, a resident in Idaho Falls, says “I think that it was wrong for them to allow Morgan Wallen to still participate in the award show; although they said that he was ashamed and that he had grown and become a better person. It doesn’t take away from the fact that what he did was wrong, and by them allowing him to still be in the award show, shows that they didn’t really care and were just doing it so they wouldn’t get a bad rep themselves. It doesn’t matter if fans wanted him there, he should have consequences for his actions.”

Another resident of Idaho Falls, Lorena Murillo, stated “ although, yes, he did in a way he did pay for what he did; they gave him everything back after 2 months. They waited for everyone to forget, and they gave him his record deal and everything back. They just waited for everyone to calm down and then gave him everything back. It was not right.”

Overall I do not believe that Morgan Wallen should’ve been allowed to participate in this year‘s ACM awards, whether they say he is regretful of his actions. Because what he did was wrong and shouldn’t just be brushed off like it’s nothing.

Photo Credit: US Weekly