Morgan Wallen's Promised Donations to Black-Led Charities Mostly Missing, Report Claims

By Stephen Andrew

Following his racial slur controversy, country music star Morgan Wallen promised that he would be making donations to Black-led and Black-founded charities. However, a new report claims that those financial assurances have been mostly missing. In July, Wallen sat down with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America to discuss the infamous incident and stated how his album sales "spike" was the catalyst for him and his "team" to "calculate" just how much he should "donate... to some organizations, BMAC [the Black Music Action Coalition] being the first one."

The "number" that Wallen and his reps landed at was "somewhere around $500,000." According to Rolling Stone, in the eight weeks since the country superstar appeared on GMA, there is no evidence that he has donated that amount to the organizations he stated he was planning to support. The outlet reports that it reached out to dozens of Black-led non-profit foundations and organizations, but only one, BMAC, reported receiving money from Wallen. Rolling Stone reports that BMAC sent over a statement, criticizing Wallen and saying it is "disappointed that Morgan has not used his platform to support any anti-racism endeavors." The group confirmed that it had received a financial donation from Wallen, but added that the $500,000 amount "seems exceptionally misleading."

Wallen remained mostly out of the picture for a few months after being caught on camera using a racial slur but, eventually, reemerged, turning up at Kid Rock's Nashville bar to perform two songs in May. He also issued a public statement posted to his Instagram, writing in part, "I wanted to let you guys know that I've taken a couple months away and feel like I've really worked on myself. I'm proud of the work I've put in, and in many ways thankful to have had the time to do it. I've needed this time off."

Wallen's fellow country singer and friend Chase Rice spoke exclusively with PopCulture.com, offering an update on how Wallen had been doing. "He's good! Speaking of putting in work, he's put in a lot of work himself," Rice said. "I've hung with him quite a few times now and he seems to be in a lot better place. I don't know what exactly he did, those are the details that he can tell if he wants to, but he seems to be in a good place."

Rice later clarified that Wallen is aware of "what he did wrong" but asserts that he's seen the singer make big changes. "Morgan absolutely knows what he did wrong [...] he knows that; he's not dumb," Rice stated. "He put in the work and got it fixed. So I'm happy for where he is, I'm happy for what's about to happen, I'm happy for the success he's had."

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