#whyamitalking

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was watching the 2000 MTV VMAs and quirky electronic producer Moby used his presentation for best rap video as an opportunity to paste a “Gore - Lieberman” sticker on the podium as a shade to Republican nominees Bush and Cheney. The media considered it a cute novelty or a vapid stunt. I thought it was brilliant. Three years later, The Chicks, then known as The Dixie Chicks, jumped onto the political pop advocacy train when front woman Natalie Maines denounced George Bush and the U.S. invasion, and subsequent deadly occupation, in Iraq. After saying that she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," Maines’ core audience turned against her group. Radio stations blackballed the trio’s music and the band’s promising career as torch bearers for modern country hits was all but extinguished. Then, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina laid bare in a horrific demonstration just how inconsequential the US government valued its Black...