Ahead of the War and Treaty’s recent performance at the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival in Austin, Texas, the Grammy-nominated husband-and-wife duo were subjected to a racist gesture that deeply upset them. A cotton plant was left in their dressing room at the festival. “And we all know what that means,” says singer Michael Trotter Jr. “We all know what that represents in this country to people that look like us.” The group performed their scheduled set, but the racist act hurt them. “Anger is what I felt. Disrespect is what I felt. Sadness is what I felt,” said Trotter Jr. “I am a son of this country. I served this country honorably in the United States Army 16th Infantry. I felt betrayed. It’s something that white artists don’t have to worry about at all. It just happens to come through the bowels of this genre. So, I feel that it’s not enough for us to talk about it, we have to demand that we be about it.” (Billboard)