John Legend blames American racism for Beyoncé’s CMA controversy

Nov 6, 2016

John Legend isn’t mad at the Country Music Association for their recent Beyoncé controversy in which they pulled mentions of her performance with the Dixie Chicks off of their websites after this year’s CMAs.

The problem, Legend said, isn’t with just country music or the CMAs. It’s with America as a whole and its problem with racism.

“Obviously the CMAs weren’t being racist by including Beyoncé — the people that were being mad about her were being racist,” Legend told TMZ on Friday.

“There’s a problem with racism in America I’m not blaming country music for that,” he added. “I know a lot of country music writers and artists and I don’t think it’s their issue, I think it’s America’s issue.”

— Beyoncé wows with country takeover at CMAs —

While he was at it, Legend threw some shade at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, too.

“America has a problem with racism that’s why we have a racist candidate with 45% of the vote — that’s America,” he said.

As for the CMA, they have denied removing any references to Beyoncé, saying in a statement: “CMA has not erased any mentions of Beyoncé’s performance on the CMA Awards. In advance of the broadcast, CMA removed a five-second promotional clip from ABC.com and CMA’s Facebook page.”