Dixie Chicks Announce They've Changed the Name of Their Band

Amid the ongoing discussion and cultural changes surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, the Dixie Chicks have announced that they have changed the name of their band to simply The Chicks. 

“We want to meet this moment,” country girl group posted on their website. 

Additionally, a representative for the trio released a statement (via Variety), adding, “A sincere and heartfelt thank you goes out to ‘The Chicks’ of NZ for their gracious gesture in allowing us to share their name. We are honored to co-exist together in the world with these exceptionally talented sisters. Chicks Rock! — Emily, Natalie and Martie.” 

Following the announcement that the women have made the decision to rebrand, fans immediately took to social media to share their reactions. 

Keep reading to find out more about the reason to drop the "Dixie" from their name. 

With systematic racism being called into question in our society, Hollywood and the music industry are also reflecting on how they attribute to the structure of "white privilege" in TV, films, and music. According to Variety guest columnist Jeremy Helligar, the term "Dixie" is a reference to the Mason-Dixon line, which separated free states and slave states in America.

Therefore, Dixie is a reference to the culture of the South.

"Dixie" is also a song from the 19th century that was used among Confederate soldiers as a sort of anthem during the Civil War. However, "Dixie" was initially created in the North as a minstrel show — in which White men dress in blackface, before it became popular among white Southerners. 

The song continued to be an anthem for Southerners well into the 21st century, despite having racist underpinnings.

"The song is tangled up with the cultural revival of white supremacy in the 20th century. 'Dixie' was part of the score of Birth of a Nation, the movie that helped revive the Ku Klux Klan. It was embraced by the segregationist Dixiecrats in the 1940s. And in the 1950s, it was sung by white women protesting the integration of schools in Arkansas and elsewhere," Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tony Horwitz told NPR.

"Dixie" was even performed at the University of Mississippi during football games up until 2016. 

However, the origin of the band's name had nothing to do with the Civil War era. In fact, the women are from Texas and came up with the name based on the Little Feat rock song “Dixie Chicken."

After news broke, fans immediately took to social media to share their reactions. "I didn’t even know the dixie chicks were still around to have to prove their wokeness. prob would have been better off going with an entirely new name, pretending they were new and that they didn’t eff their careers with politics a while back," one "fan" tweeted.  

This individual added, "The 'fans' that are upset about the name change were never fans in the first place. Was time to get rid of the Dixie. And, they've been referred to as The Chicks by fans for YEARS anyway."

Another person posted, "I have and will always be a fan of the Dixie Chicks. I get it, but for ME, it didn't really matter. The last thing I was thinking about is this group and their name. I am not or do not feel any safer as a Black woman in the South because they changed their name. But I get it."

However, some people had an issue with the name change. "I hear the Dixie Chicks have changed their name to the Chicks as Dixie references the southern states during the civil war. How on earth do they think the Chicks is acceptable. Sounds sexist as hell," tweeted this person.

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