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Your support makes all the difference.The majority of Morgan Wallen’s promised donation of $500,000 (£366,000) to Black-led organisations has not materialised, according to a new report.
Earlier this year, a video of Wallen using a racist slur surfaced online, sparking uproar. Wallen was later dropped by his agents WME, and his recording contract with Big Loud Records was suspended for three months.
He also had all of his videos pulled from CMT, and his music was disqualified from contention at the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards.
However, it was also reported around the time that Wallen also experienced a sales and streaming spike of his music.
Wallen then went on Good Morning America and told host Michael Strahan that he’d made around $500,000 (£366,000) from the sales boost, and that he had “decided to donate that money to some organisations”.
However, according to Rolling Stone, only the Black Music Action Coalition have received any money from the country singer, around $165,000 (£120,000).
The publication claims that Wallen has cancelled meetings with the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples (NAACP), and that of the 57 registered black charities registered in America, he has only reached out to one.
The Rolling Stone report notes that Wallen has been busy with other charity endeavours such as launching his More Than My Hometown Foundation in July.
The Independent has contacted Wallen’s representatives for comment.
Wallen told Strahan that he had been drinking all weekend leading up to the night in February where he was filmed using the slur.
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“I was around some of my friends, and we say dumb stuff together,” said Wallen. “In our minds, it’s playful. That’s sounds ignorant but that’s really where it came from. And it’s wrong.”
He denied using the term frequently and said he only used it around a certain group of friends.
When asked if country music overall had a problem with race, Wallen responded: “It would seem that way, yeah. I haven’t really sat and thought about that.”