UPDATE 06/13/2020: Lady A responds!
The REAL Lady A isn’t too thrilled about having to share her stage name.
The 61-year-old blues singer — real name: Anita White — tells Rolling Stone she isn’t ok with the group Lady Antebellum changing their name to one she has been using for over 20 years:
“This is my life. Lady A is my brand, I’ve used it for over 20 years, and I’m proud of what I’ve done. This is too much right now. They’re using the name because of a Black Lives Matter incident that, for them, is just a moment in time. If it mattered, it would have mattered to them before.”
She continued:
“It shouldn’t have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it. It’s an opportunity for them to pretend they’re not racist or pretend this means something to them. If it did, they would’ve done some research. And I’m not happy about that. You found me on Spotify easily — why couldn’t they?”
White says the group did not communicate to her ahead of the change, and that she found out via messages from her friends.
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In the fight against systemic racism, there are going to be some casualties people don’t want to see go. While many symbols of oppression are obvious — statues of Confederate leaders, monuments dedicated by racist organizations — there are others you may not have even noticed. Like Lady Antebellum‘s name.
For those who don’t know, “antebellum” is latin for “before the war,” and it is used in the US to refer to the period in the South before the Civil War. It is a time marked by ornate mansions, gaudy gowns, and the ownership of people.
Yes, the two big distinctions between the South before and after the Civil War are the area’s wealth and the legality of slavery. So romanticizing the “antebellum” period, in, say, your country group’s name, feels a lot like showing nostalgia for slavery.
That’s why Lady Antebellum have decided to officially change their name!
Related: Netflix & The BBC Remove Shows With Blackface
After 14 years of enormous success, multiple platinum records and millions of album sales, the group is giving up their moniker to make sure they are no longer hurting anyone. In an Instagram announcement Thursday morning, they wrote:
“As a band, we have strived for our music to be a refuge…inclusive of all. We’ve watched and listened more than ever these last few weeks, and our hearts have been stirred with conviction, our eyes opened wide to the injustices, inequality and biases Black women and men have always faced and continue to face everyday. Now, blindspots we didn’t even know existed have been revealed. After much personal reflection, band discussion, prayer and many honest conversations with some of our closest Black friends and colleagues, we have decided to drop the word “antebellum” from our name and move forward as Lady A, the nickname our fans gave us almost from the start.”
Lady A. It sounds a bit like a femme fatale in a James Bond porn parody, but tbh that’s kinda great.
They also assured fans the origins of their original name had nothing to do with slavery:
“When we set out together almost 14 years ago, we named our band after the southern “antebellum” style home where we took our first photos. As musicians, it reminded us of all the music born in the south that influenced us…Southern Rock, Blues, R&B, Gospel and of course Country. But we are regretful and embarrassed to say that we did not take into account the associations that weigh down this word referring to the period of history before The Civil War, which includes slavery. We are deeply sorry for the hurt this has caused and for anyone who has felt unsafe, unseen or unvalued. Causing pain was never our hearts’ intention, but it doesn’t change the fact that indeed, it did just that. So today, we speak up and make a change. We hope you will dig in and join us.”
They also put their money where their “-ntebellum” is, promising to do some donating in the future:
“We feel like we have been Awakened, but this is just one step. There are countless more that need to be taken. We want to do better. We are committed to examining our individual and collective impact and making the necessary changes to practice antiracism. We will continue to educate ourselves, have hard conversations and search the parts of our hearts that need pruning—to grow into better humans, better neighbors. Our next outward step will be a donation to the Equal Justice Initiative through LadyAID. Our prayer is that if we lead by example…with humility, love, empathy and action…we can be better allies to those suffering from spoken and unspoken injustices, while influencing our children & generations to come.”
In a comment on the post, the band responded to a common question from fans — by taking full accountability. They wrote:
“We understand that many of you may ask the question “Why have you not made this change until now?” The answer is that we can make no excuse for our lateness to this realization. What we can do is acknowledge it, turn from it and take action.”
Speaking of taking action, they aren’t the only “antebellum” being removed this week.
The newly formed HBO Max announced they were removing Gone With The Wind from their library of streaming films.
In a statement, a spokesperson explained the film is “a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society.” The issue is not with the depiction of slavery and the Civil War, but with what many critics have noted seems to be a glorification of the era — not to mention some caricatures of slaves.
As filmmaker John Ridley wrote in a recent LA Times op-ed:
“It is a film that glorifies the antebellum south. It is a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color.”
HBO Max noted:
“These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.”
The streaming service has promised this will only be a temporary removal, and the film “will return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions.” We assume as a special feature? The spokesperson also assured everyone they had no plans to censor the film, which will return “as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”
Of course, looking at our history is important — we need to be able to identify right away when we see a dangerous racist in a big white house. What do YOU think about these changes??
[Image via MGM/WENN/Instar.]
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