Maren Morris Reveals Why She Isn’t Afraid to ‘Speak out’ in Country Music

Maren Morris has never been afraid to speak her mind, most recently using her voice to advocate for Black women in country music. During a new interview with Ellen DeGeneres on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Morris explained why she feels the need to speak out, responding to the host when she noted that “most people are scared just to speak out, especially in country music.”

“I’m a white woman in country music,” Morris said. “I already have this sort of leg-up. There’s a huge disparity between men and women in our genre, there’s even more of a disparity between white women and Black women trying to be in country music.” She continued, “There are so many Black women and men who adore country music and don’t feel like the door is open for them even a crack. I’ve just been doing so much of my own homework the last couple of years.”

“You’re always gonna have people that want to come for you if you say something that’s unpopular to them,” Morris concluded. “For me, it’s just you know what, I have to think about myself and the people in my circle who I write with, who I employ, and think, am I making room for everybody?” The Texas native recently discussed a similar topic when she participated in a conversation about racism in country music in a joint interview with Luke Combs during the annual Country Radio Seminar in Nashville last month.

“I really didn’t set out to be this activist,” Morris pointed out. “Obviously, none of us are the authority on racism because, as I said, we’re white and existing as white people in a space that is historically rooted in a lot of racism. And so, I think it’s really hard for me as a white person to deconstruct all of that, and I think the initial sort of white fragility moment is like, ‘I’m not racist, I haven’t done anything racist. I have friends that are black,’ yada, yada, you can go down the list. But I think once I took that layer away, it’s kind of liberating to not bow up anytime someone questions a motive or an action of yours. I think that I’m still shedding that insecurity, that edge that white people, especially in country music get when we don’t want to really face the history of this genre that I would say we all love dearly and has shaped us as human beings and as artists.”