Country music legend, Dolly Parton, has revealed her thoughts towards the ‘Black Lives matter’ movement.
The ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement has been on the forefront of major political, Social and cultural discussions in the US and Europe recently after the police killing of black man George Floyd in May.e
Demonstrators denouncing systemic racism in law enforcement and the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer gather at a press conference in the borough of Brooklyn calling for the passing of bills to increase police accountability throughout New York state on June 4 in New York City.
Ever since the killing of Floyd at the hands of police, there have been street protests, online campaigns, and even new laws were created to highlight and mitigate police brutality towards black people.
Now, Parton, 74, who made her album debut in 1967 with Hello, I’m Dolly, has come out to state her support for the movement.
“I understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen,” she said in an interview with Billboard Magazine.
“And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little White a**es are the only ones that matter? No!”
In 2018, Parton changed the name of her Civil War-themed dinner attraction in her theme park in Tennessee and Missouri from the Dixie Stampede to The Stampede after she became aware that the term “Dixie” is associated with the Confederacy.
Other country bands such as Lady Antebellum and The Dixie Chicks also changed their names this year after finding out their names had racist connotations.
Lady Antebellum now goes by the name Lady A while the Dixie Chicks is now referred to as The Chicks.
Dolly Parton has now explained why she changed the name of her dinner show from the Dixie Stampede to The Stampede.
“There’s such a thing as innocent ignorance, and so many of us are guilty of that,” she told the magazine.
“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.’ As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don’t be a dumba**.
” That’s where my heart is. I would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose.”
