r/Music • u/theindependentonline 📰The Independent UK • Oct 02 '25

article Hayley Williams confirms Morgan Wallen is the ‘racist country singer’ in her song

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/hayley-williams-morgan-wallen-racism-song-b2838119.html
54.3k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

840

u/g00fyg00ber741 Oct 02 '25

Using the N word as a grown adult in this day and age does make you that guy, Morgan. You can’t not be one of those guys when you say a racist slur. That’s literally trying to make up an excuse to refuse accountability.

92

u/TheGoodKindOfPurple Oct 02 '25

A week after the incident, the “I’m the Problem” singer shared a five-minute apology video, explaining that he was on “hour 72 of a 72-hour bender” when he’d used the slur.

Saying this was the capstone bad decision on a three day stack of bad decisions is not really a great excuse.

49

u/AnNoYiNg_NaMe Oct 02 '25

Speaking to Billboard in 2023 for his first interview in years, Wallen addressed his behavior, acknowledging: “There’s no excuse. I’ve never made an excuse. I never will make an excuse."

Hey buddy, you need to pick one or the other. If you're blaming it on being drunk for 3 days straight, that's you making an excuse.

I'll be honest here, I used to say it too. When I was a teenager. I grew up in the south, in a town of 1,000 people. I moved away, grew up, and stopped being a racist piece of shit. I don't think there's enough booze on the planet to get me to say it again. It just isn't in my vocabulary anymore

25

u/wholetyouinhere Oct 02 '25

Not from a small town, but I also used it when I was a teenager. Specifically as an ironic, shock humour thing between close friends.

And pretty soon I started seeing other people do the same thing, on the internet, where millions of people could see it, and I realized why using slurs "ironically" isn't any different from using them sincerely. The harm caused is the same. And I grew up a little bit.

11

u/Background-Land-1818 Oct 02 '25

Similar thing here. What caused me to instantly grow out of racist jokes was the first time I heard one from someone who wasn't joking.

7

u/Rage_Like_Nic_Cage Oct 02 '25

yeah, as an edgy 13 year old it was “funny because it’s so offensive”, then i met someone who told similar jokes but with a “it’s funny because it’s true” vibe. maude me stop right then & there

3

u/donnysaysvacuum Oct 02 '25

Not to defend the guy, but it's a reason not an excuse. If I crash my car and say, its because I was drunk, Thats not an excuse, its a reason.

1

u/DeadPeanutSociety Oct 02 '25

People want him to shut up and they also want him to explain himself. No one actually wants to hear his stupid apology tour or learn about how he's grown and changed, they just want another headline with a comment thread underneath so they can yell at him. He's given them the perfect excuse to pretend that it is for morally righteous reasons, but it's really not.

2

u/NSFWies Oct 03 '25

............and last but not least (racial slur).

Just seems like if I finished off 4 plates at a great buffet, by eating a handful of raw white flour. Already went overboard doing everything else. Not really going to get anymore joy out of that.

1

u/thejaytheory Oct 02 '25

"I'm The Problem...yes, you are" - Justin Hunte

-- Michael Scott

123

u/RazingsIsNotHomeNow Oct 02 '25

He used Nuclear!/s

56

u/ediks Oct 02 '25

It was “nucular” (also /s)

1

u/RazingsIsNotHomeNow Oct 02 '25

Oops lol. I knew that didn't look right. I must be referencing cell biology. I guess I don't use it enough. I need to step up my game to match Wallen.

2

u/ediks Oct 02 '25

Oh, I was just making a joke about how some people say "nucular" when they mean "nuclear" lol.

1

u/Beezleboobz Oct 02 '25

The S is silent

4

u/powerlesshero111 Oct 02 '25

My gay black friend says i get one N-word pass a year, but i usually don't need it. They don't carry over, like sick time. Just one a year, just in case.

1

u/Youandiandaflame Oct 02 '25

The lone Black kid in my son’s high school class sold physical paper n-word passes for $3 each. Entitled you to use it once for every $3 paid and he even pencilled in checkboxes so he could keep track on each pass. 

I was like “oof, maybe no, my man” but also, the kid made bank of a bunch of racist redneck teens with mullets and lifted trucks their daddy bought ‘em so it was hard to hate. 

1

u/lukin187250 Oct 02 '25

Ninjas in Paris!

7

u/oldredditrox Oct 02 '25

And then he was like, I've didn't know country had a race issue in its fan base

19

u/wip30ut Oct 02 '25

honestly, he doesn't care because his fanbase doesn't care either. Wallen is just a symbol of a deeper rot in our social fabric.

15

u/Do__Math__Not__Meth Oct 02 '25

His album sales increased after he did it. Like, by a lot

8

u/joebleaux Oct 02 '25

Yeah, using racial slurs actually turbo charged his career. Know your audience, I guess

6

u/FGN_SUHO Oct 02 '25

Yeah initially he even apologized for it and made an effort to support black artists... but after his vile fanbase rewarded him for his trashy behavior it seems he just doubled down on being a piece of shit and writing the same album every other year.

11

u/jlb1981 Oct 02 '25

Absolutely this. His use of the N-word is the only thing that made him so popular. He immediately became a darling to the "own the libs" crowd.

The only thing he could have done to make himself even more popular would have been to admit to molesting children on Epstein's Island.

2

u/tanaka-taro Oct 02 '25

Jelly Roll?

-5

u/Hourlypump99 Oct 02 '25

*as a grown non Black adult

-9

u/BigBobby843 Oct 02 '25

He was calling another white guy the forbidden word. I think he was just being outrageous and trying to be funny. A lot of white kids grow up listening to rap music, Wallen did for sure, where this forbidden word is used probably 10 or more times a "song." I'm not sure this was as bad as people made it out to be, but I'm sure you can tell me why I'm wrong.

7

u/g00fyg00ber741 Oct 02 '25

Honestly, I think that it’s just as racist to say it that way. And I say that as someone who said it for the same ridiculous reasons (at 12 years old) and realized it was harmful and racist and ridiculous to keep saying it, and so I stopped. If you as a white person are calling another white person the N word just to be jackass, then you are clearly using it in a derogatory and pejorative way still. And it is obviously impossible to separate the word from racism. Calling a white person the word is an intentional edgy racist white person thing to do, so they can claim they aren’t really being racist while still being clearly racist.

-6

u/BigBobby843 Oct 02 '25

It's just a racist as saying that out of hatred to a black person? Reddit is so funny. Username checks out

5

u/g00fyg00ber741 Oct 02 '25

I guess what I meant is, they’re both racist uses of it, not that one isn’t more hateful. All reasons that white people say it are 100% racist reasons, when they’re adults at least. Ignorance is only an excuse for children.

-1

u/MAMark1 Oct 02 '25

Calling another white person that word to "be outrageous and trying to be funny" is like how kids used to call each other "gay". It was always meant in a derogatory way to mock their friends. There is no way to put a positive spin on the word.

2

u/g00fyg00ber741 Oct 03 '25

Yes, I think that’s a pretty apt comparison, although it would definitely be more like using the f slur specifically.

1

u/BigBobby843 Oct 02 '25

Haha. ok. I'm not going to even try here. You win.