The Country Music Association has banned all Accomplice flags and Accomplice “flag imagery of any kind” at its upcoming competition for the primary time.
The four-day CMA Fest in Nashville, one of many largest of its sort within the nation, will probably be held June 9-12 after a two-year suspension as a result of COVID pandemic
Barring the Accomplice flag was a part of the CMA’s up to date coverage to guard the security of followers, the group stated in a press release to the Tennessean newspaper.
“This 12 months’s CMA Fest is our first main fan-facing occasion in almost three years. We now have at all times had insurance policies in place that protect the safety of our fans and ban discrimination, however we felt it was necessary to additional refine our language to explicitly define what’s going to and won’t be tolerated,” the assertion stated.
The assertion didn’t go into element about questions of safety in regards to the flag, however the battle flags could be be intimidating and infuriating, and a flashpoint for battle and violence.
“Our occasion coverage … states any conduct that causes considered one of our attendees to worry for his or her private security won’t be tolerated, and that’s inclusive of any shows of the Accomplice flag,” the assertion stated.
The transfer comes amid growing criticism of shows of the flag and of Accomplice monuments.
The flag has been considered previously as an emblem of the Southern roots of nation music with little sensitivity concerning the Confederacy’s struggle to protect slavery. However that acceptance of racist emblems has modified as extra artists of shade have turn into concerned within the style, and as artists and trade leaders push for racial equality in nation music.
Luke Combs, who will probably be performing on the CMA Fest, apologized final 12 months for performing in entrance of Accomplice flags in 2015 and with photographs that includes the flag.
“There is no excuse for those images,” Combs stated on Nationwide Public Radio. “As a youthful man, that was a picture that I related to imply one thing else. I’m now conscious how painful that picture could be to another person.”
Combs added: “I need folks to really feel welcomed by nation music and by our group. On the time that these pictures existed, I wasn’t conscious what that was portraying to the world and to African American artists in Nashville that had been saying, ‘Man, I actually need to are available and get a deal and do that factor, however how can I be round with these pictures being promoted?’ And so I do apologize for that.”
The flag has lengthy been banned at a number of different festivals and occasions.
“Nobody ought to really feel uncomfortable after they come to a NASCAR race. So it begins with Accomplice flags. Get them out of right here,” NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace informed Nationwide Public Radio after the affiliation banned the flags in 2020.
