How Kane Brown Dealt With Racism in School and Breaking Into Country Music
He loves country music. Kane Brown is the artist behind “One Right Thing” and an outspoken activist against racism. Here’s what this artist said about growing up multiracial and his current experience in the country music scene.
‘Heaven’ singer, Kane Brown, is a country artist and a former ‘X Factor’ contestant
Brown loves country music, even releasing his own country songs. During an interview with PEOPLE, Brown said he didn’t know he was Black until he was in elementary school.
“I’m biracial; I didn’t know that until I was 7 or 8 years old,” Brown said. “I thought I was full white, which honestly, I can’t even really say because I didn’t see colors.”
“I found out that I was biracial, and I still wasn’t thinking anything of it, but then I started getting called the N-word,” he continued. “I didn’t even know what it meant. I learned what it meant, and that’s when it started affecting me. I got in fights over it when I was little.”
According to Meaww, Brown is multiracial, “born to a White mother, Tabatha Brown, and an African-American father who is also part Cherokee.”
Kane Brown faced racism before high school — ‘I just kept to myself’
Before he was a country singer, Brown attended switched high schools several times, briefly attending Lakeview Fort Oglethorpe High School in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. At that point, the artist revealed, the fights weren’t as frequent.
“Once I got to high school and hit my growth spurt, nobody really messed with me anymore,” Brown said in the same interview. “I just kept to myself. I kept my circle small. I had my friends that I knew wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, and I would also stand up for them, and those are still my friends today.”
Kane Brown used to screenshot and post racist comments
Of course, Brown is now an award-winning country singer, as well as the first male country artist to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards. He collaborated with Swan Lee and Khalid for “Be Like That,” earning over 325 million Spotify plays.
He even wrote “Grand” about his experience with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The road to success wasn’t without challenges, though — and some racist comments on social media.
“When I first got into country, I started getting some of those comments like, ‘He’s an N-word.’ Stuff like that,” Brown said. “I used to screenshot it and put it on Twitter, like, ‘There still racism in the world.’ But I didn’t get into country music just to prove a point. I try to stay away from all negativity.”
Brown sometimes speaks out against racism within the music industry and among his peers. He responded to Morgan Wallen using the n-word in 2021, telling fans that he texted the country artist after the video surfaced.
