Dolly Parton on Why She Dumped 'Dixie' Name From Her Theme Parks: 'Don't Be a Dumbass'

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Country singer Dolly Parton in a new interview explained why she removed the word “Dixie” from a dinner attraction in her Dollywood Parks and Resorts in Tennessee and Missouri. Back in 2018, the Dixie Stampede was renamed to The Stampede after Parton became aware that the term “Dixie” can be associated with the Confederacy.

Parton tells Billboard, “There’s such a thing as innocent ignorance, and so many of us are guilty of that,” Parton says. “When they said ‘Dixie’ was an offensive word, I thought, ‘Well, I don’t want to offend anybody. This is a business. We’ll just call it ‘The Stampede.’ As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don’t be a dumbass.”

“That’s where my heart is. I would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose,” added Parton. Read the full Billboard interview here.

The moves follows similar actions by other country bands back in June such as the Dixie Chicks, the veteran American country trio, that changed its name to The Chicks in response to a discussion about the use of the Civil War-era phrase “Dixie” in the name, and Lady Antebellum who will now be named Lady A in an effort to distance themselves from the former name’s pre-Civil War connotations.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/dolly-parton-why-she-dumped-151009260.html

[msongs]

1. plus, she said, the word dixie has no meaning to fans/customers outside the usa

one can read the entire interview at billboard.com lots of it is about her career as a whole

[hlthe2b]

2. Dolly's a treasure..

[tishaLA]

3. There's a great limited series podcast, "Dolly Parton's America"

and I wasn't so sure I'd want to listen to it because, even though I like Dolly--who doesn't?--I didn't know that I was willing to spend 9 episodes listening to stuff about her.

How wrong I was! It is only partly about Dolly, but it's really a pint sized version of American (and especially Appalachian) cultural history that explores the geneologies of things in Dolly's music (I found out from the podcast, for example, that redneck began as a slur against unionization, and it's weird that it's become a signifier of anti-progressivism when it started as part of progressive politics).

Anyhow, there's an entire episode dedicated to the question of "Dixie" at her park and it's well worth listening to. I'd also recommend listening to the episode about the tearjerker songs she wrote to start her career: from the podcast, I discovered that a lot of the stories that inform those songs can be traced back almost directly to Scotland.

[volstork]

4. Great podcast!

Thanks for calling attention to it. So well done, and a great insight into Dolly's life and influence. She is a TN state and National treasure!

[Demonaut]

5. she's an angel