On the face of it, Beyoncé and Dixie Chicks performing together at the Country Music Awards made sense for all parties involved. Queen Bey could reach a whole new demo, Dixie Chicks got to stand alongside the greatest living pop star, and the CMAs would attract publicity galore. The performance ended up sounding great and everyone was happy.

… Well, everyone that was except the large contingent of country music fans who’ve since turned the CMA’s Facebook page into Yahoo! comments on steroids. The detractors cite Beyoncé and Dixie Chicks’ pro-liberal views, including Bey’s support of Black Live Matters, as reason why neither should have any part in a night celebrating country music. That and the fact that Beyoncé didn’t look or sound like the evening’s other performers.



A small sampling of said comments:

The negative reaction got so intense that the CMAs began scrubbing posts about the collaboration from their social media channels, according to TMZ. Meanwhile, Dixie Chicks responded to the criticism on Twitter, writing, “If we all turn this up really loud, together we can drown out the hate.”

If we all turn this up really loud, together we can drown out the hate. https://t.co/PWJcDeNmuR — Dixie Chicks (@dixiechicks) November 3, 2016

For its part, the CMAs disputed TMZ’s report that they deleted any postings about the performance, saying in a statement, “CMA has not erased any mentions of Beyoncé’s performance on the CMA Award. In advance of the broadcast, CMA removed a five-second promotional clip from ABC.com and CMA’s Facebook page. The promo was unapproved and CMA removed it prior to the broadcast. Beyoncé’s performance with Dixie Chicks was a highlight of the evening and we are continuing to share the amazing full-length performance clip via our official social channels.” TMZ continues to stand by its story, however, noting that the CMA posts in question only appeared after TMZ’s initial report. TMZ also claims that “the CMA people ‘just want this to go away’ and feel it was probably a mistake to invite the 4 women in the first place.”

Whatever the case, the fact remains that CMA’s social media channels continue to be flooded with the most vile, racist comments imaginable. We may have advanced a lot as a society, but there’s still a very long ways to go. Please vote on Tuesday, and maybe we won’t be nearly as embarrassed when we look back on this era 70 years from now.