August 14, 2020
Dolly Parton Voices Support for BLM: 'Our Little White Asses' Not 'the Only Ones That Matter'!
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Country music legend and longtime LGBTQ ally Dolly Parton came out swinging in support of Black Lives Matter in an interview with Billboard this week.
The piece looked at how Parton's theme park, Dollywood, has dealt with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The article also tallied up the ways in which the 74-year-old superstar has acted as America's "comforter-in-chief" as the pandemic has worn on: "She donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center's COVID-19 research fund, recorded handwashing videos and bedtime stories for children, released a soothing new song called 'When Life Is Good Again' and offered social media pep talks about standing together."
Parton explained all this in terms of her faith, telling Billboard, "As the scripture says, 'To whom much is given, much is required.' Her acts of compassion and concern are, she said, expected of her by God, but also, she added, "I expect it of myself, and I think people expect it of me. If I can be an inspiration, then I want to be that. That makes me feel good."
Parton's moral sensibilities are just as acute as her business sense, and her concerns for life and justice don't stop at her own front door. The topic of the interview turned to recent protests by African Americans and their supporters against too-often-lethal police violence targeting people of color. The protests swept the nation in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Chauvin ignored Floyd's cries of distress and the alarm of witnesses who saw Floyd go limp several minutes before Chauvin took his knee off Floyd's neck.
Parton left no room for doubt about her convictions, telling Billboard:
"I understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen.
"And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!"
Parton went on to advise that "good Christian people" would do well to remember that "the last thing we're supposed to do is to judge one another.
"God is the judge, not us," Parton added. "I just try to be myself. I try to let everybody else be themselves."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
