Morgan Wallen recently tried to get back into the public’s good books by pledging to donate “around $500,00” to Black-led organisations but now it looks like that pledge wasn’t made in good faith.
According to a new report by Rolling Stone, Wallen allegedly only committed a total of $165,000 to Black-led organisations, around a third of his pledged total, and all to just one single group.
The report alleges that BMAC – “an advocacy organisation formed to address systemic racism within the music business” – was the only organisation that Wallen and his team contacted, with the aforementioned $165,000 given to them.
Rolling Stone said it contacted 56 other state, regional, and national Black-led charities in the state of Tennessee, and none could confirm the they’d received donations under the name of Wallen.
Representatives for BMAC issued a statement to Rolling Stone, stating that they were “disappointed that (Wallen) has not used his platform to support any anti-racism endeavours”, calling the singer’s claims that he’d divide the $500,000 between several charities “exceptionally misleading.”
BMAC organisers were reported to have started meeting with Wallen and his team back in February and March, when they “urged (Wallen) to use his platform to do more than just apologise, but to strongly condemn racism and to support anti-racism efforts and initiatives.”
“We began our interactions with (Wallen) and management being very direct about our feelings on what he had done, and making sure he was crystal clear that the N-word wasn’t some innocuous slang for him to use. Ever. That the word had hatred and violence and blood behind it,” they continued in their statement to Rolling Stone.
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Although it’s perfectly reasonable to think that Wallen had made other donations anonymously, Rolling Stone thought that unlikely, pointing to his known history of heavily publicising his charity endeavours. Even this month, Wallen performed at a benefit concert (his first headline return since all of his recent controversy) to raise funds for people affected by the Humphreys County flood in Tennessee. That event reportedly raised $725,000.
The disgraced country star is yet to comment on the report.
For more on this topic, follow the Country Music Observer.
Check out Morgan Wallen talking to Good Morning America about his use of racial slurs:
