TikToker who debunked Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town’ video receives racist, violent hate mail

Since countering Aldean’s claim the video only contains “real news footage,” Destinee Stark has received a wave of hateful messages from defenders of the song.

NASHVILLE, TN - APRIL 16: Jason Aldean performs during Keith Urban's Fourth annual We're All For The Hall benefit concert at Bridgestone Arena on April 16, 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon IV/Getty Images for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum) (Frederick Breedon IV, 2013 Getty Images)

A graphic designer and activist who made TikTok content debunking the claim by Jason Aldean that his controversial music video only uses “real news footage” has been facing a wave of racist and violent hate mail by defenders of his song.

Destinee Stark is among the first who publicly criticized Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” for the song’s lyrics and for featuring a Tennessee courthouse where a Black teenager was lynched in 1927. A former fan of the country star, Stark first heard the song about two weeks ago and then saw the music video.

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The more she thought about the words and images, the angrier she became, Stark told NBC News on Monday.

“I get online all the time and I share my, like, opinions online all the time. It’s, you know, something that I do,” Stark said. “And that first video that I made, I posted it at like ... 11:30 p.m. ... I didn’t think it would go anywhere. And I woke up to like thousands of messages about it.”

Read more from NBC News.


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