To paraphrase a famous quote about the Kardashian family, everything I have ever learned about televised awards shows I have learned against my will. However, when I heard about the Tracy Chapman/Luke Combs duet at the Grammys, I thought it was pretty cool.
For those who follow modern music about as closely as I do, allow me to explain. Luke Combs is a very popular country music star who was born in North Carolina and looks like the kind of guy who could tell you exactly where to drop a line if you want to catch a state record bass.
I didn’t know much about Combs previously, but last week I learned that he’s a huge fan of Tracy Chapman, the reclusive musical genius who rose to fame in the ‘80s with her song “Fast Car” on her 6X platinum self-titled debut album (which was followed by seven additional albums, all of which have been highly regarded).
Last year, Combs covered “Fast Car” and has described it as his first favorite song. That cover was a runaway success for him.
And so, at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, Combs, a white heterosexual male country music star, and Chapman, a queer Black woman, did a duet of “Fast Car.” It was excellent, and by all accounts, Chapman was delighted with the experience and Combs was over the moon to do a duet with one of his heroes. To make things even better, the visibility of the duet has introduced a whole new generation to Chapman and her 1988 recording of “Fast Car” is currently topping the iTunes charts — plus, she’s also getting royalties from Combs’ version.
“You know what,” I thought, “given that we live in a politically polarized nightmare world, it’s awesome that all that happened. Good for them both.”
Well, as it turns out, I’m a big idiot and a terrible person.
The other day, I was scrolling Facebook when I saw a post about the duet that had been shared by a friend of mine. Here’s what it said:
“While I appreciate the sentiment, it is also not lost on me how many white people prefer for us to return to the Kumbayah days of the Failed Post Racial Experiment. The days when a half-a$$ed, oops-my-bad, tokenized quick fix was considered good enough. It is not good enough. And while I am over the moon happy for Tracey (sic) Chapman getting some flowers while she is with us, let us not forget, she should have already received the whole bouquet the first time around. They gave her some dandelions when they should have given her orchids. Let us not forget this and other similar grievances. This does not fix it.”
The comments agreed with this assessment, making it clear that if we aren’t going to make a shift towards dramatic change, we should all just sit back down.
Folks, I am pretty progressive. I am progressive to the point that this weekly column has caused my friends and loved ones to tell me they fear for my personal safety. And I certainly don’t disagree with the idea that we need a dramatic shift in race relations in this country.
Having said that, when I read this post and the attached comments that rapturously agreed with it, all I could think was, “this is why many people absolutely hate progressives.”
First off, Tracy Chapman, whose name I took the time to spell correctly, is a beloved artist who has sold nearly 44 million records. She’s a household name despite the fact that she makes a concerted effort to stay out of the public eye. I don’t know in what sense she has not yet “received the whole bouquet.” It’s cool that she’s gotten some extra exposure and new fans thanks to Combs’ cover, but it’s not like she needed it. It’s also not like the Grammy Awards had been snubbing her up until this moment; she first performed “Fast Car” at the Grammys back in 1989 and she’s won a total of four Grammys over the years. If the complaint is that Chapman doesn’t appear on TV often enough, that’s because she has chosen not to (and who could blame her?) If the complaint is that she should be making more money in royalties, then Luke Combs should be praised for boosting her visibility.
Secondly, massive societal change doesn’t happen overnight. It happens through the accumulation of many small intentional acts. And yes, that can absolutely be frustrating, but there’s no way around it. I’m reminded of the famous quote from the late P.J. O’Rourke: “Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help mom do the dishes.”
Luke Combs is an ultra-successful country music star who did a very public duet with a queer Black woman. He had to know he was going to catch some heat from his conservative fanbase, and he certainly did. He probably lost some future record sales, but maybe he gained a few new fans. He didn’t solve America’s racism problem in one fell swoop, but what should he have done instead? Storm Harpers Ferry?
It’s also worth noting that when Combs covered “Fast Car,” he intentionally did not change the lyrics to reflect his gender; he still sings “so I work in the market as a checkout girl.” The reason he didn’t change the lyrics is because it would have potentially made it harder for Chapman to receive royalties from his cover.
But the most important point here is this: time and time again, I have seen my ultra-progressive friends allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. It’s exhausting. It sends the implicit message that if you can’t do everything, you ought to just sit down and be quiet and do nothing instead.
There’s a certain kind of progressive that I have encountered many times over the years — they’re certainly not the majority, but they’re out there. I refer to them as the Professionally Offended. These are the people who analyze every action in order to figure out how they can either take offense to it or condescendingly point out some flaw. What they generally have in common is a deeply-held belief that saying the right words in the right combination is more important than taking positive action. There’s a term for this: performative allyship.
Performative allyship is most frequently seen in the corporate world. How many companies do you know of that have had their staff take DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) training? Realistically, that training isn’t going to change the way they do business, it just means that they’ll be careful not to misgender an employee while they’re in the midst of firing them.
But I see performative allyship on an individual basis too, and I think it’s past time for other progressives to point it out.
When someone on the other end of the political spectrum makes an attempt to extend an olive branch, you’re not going to win them over by patronizing them and asking them why they didn’t offer the whole tree. All you’re going to do is make them wonder why the hell they bothered trying in the first place.
