A Black artist is in a legal battle with country music group Lady Antebellum over a name she has used for more than three decades.
Anita White, a blues singer from Seattle, has performed under the name Lady A for over 30 years.
In response to the recent Black Lives Matter uprisings, the country group Lady Antebellum decided to change its name to Lady A, according to Rolling Stone.
The group wanted to distance itself from the term Antebellum, which is the period in American history before the Civil War and is associated with slavery.
However, White told the group that she did not want to share the Lady A name because she used it as a performer since 1989 and it would confuse music fans.
Members of Lady Antebellum decided to sue White after she requested a $10 million payment. She was set to use $5 million to rebrand, and the other $5 million to donate to organizations such as Black Lives Matter.
Lady Antebellum countersued White and asked for no monetary damages but for a declaration that they aren’t infringing on a trademark in using the name and that both parties can “continue to coexist.”
But White believes that Lady Antebellum is attempting to use the group’s massive fan base, which includes 1.6 million followers on Instagram, to bully her.
“Five million dollars is nothing, and I’m actually worth more than that, regardless of what they think,” White told Entertainment Tonight. “But here we go again with another White person trying to take something from a Black person, even though they say they’re trying to help. If you want to be an advocate or an ally, you help those who you’re oppressing. And that might require you to give up something because I am not going to be erased.”
Here’s a sampling of what Black folks on Twitter had to say about the controversy:
This is a PR nightmare for Lady Antebellum. I don’t see how they come out of this looking like they didn’t use/try to use their power and resources over a black artist with less power and resources AFTER saying black lives matter to them. It all feels disingenuous at this point.
— damita jo (@KiaSpeaks) July 10, 2020
ok I don't know any black people that listened to lady antebellum but now that they've sued a black woman to take her less racist name, I vote we call them lady slave coast
— yedoye (@yedoye_) July 10, 2020
Keeping it 💯, What does renaming yourself "Lady A" really do anyway?
Wink & nod that "We're STILL Lady Antebellum, but we abbreviated it because the block is hot for racism right now…
…Meanwhile, enjoy our lawsuit against a 62 year old black woman."
— Darryn M. Briggs (@darryn_briggs) July 10, 2020
