Taylor Swift Condemns Racist Statues In Her Home State, Tennessee

@taylorswift

In a week that has seen numerous contentious statues removed around the world in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, many that are still standing are now being questioned.

Taylor Swift has spoken out about two in particular in her home state of Tennessee. “As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things.”

“Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such.””

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Jun 12, 2020 at 1:01pm PDT

One of the statues in question, of Edward Carmack, is described by Taylor as a “white-supremacist newspaper editor” was torn down during the protests and seemingly will be replaced by the state. She has called for it not to be replaced;

“Replacing his statue is a waste of state funds and a waste of an opportunity to do the right thing.”

The second statue is of a founder of the Klu Klux Klan, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Taylor shared that July 13th is ‘Nathan Bedford Forrest Day’ which apparently the state is trying to overrule. Forrest was also a slave trader and to honour him with a statue Taylor has said symbolises “hideous patterns of racism.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Feb 13, 2020 at 2:30pm PST

To conclude her statement the 30 year old pop star said;

“I’m asking the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to please consider the implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments. When you fight to honor racists, you show black Tennesseans and all of their allies where you stand, and you continue this cycle of hurt. You can’t change history, but you can change this.”

“Villains don’t deserve statues.”

Considering Taylor has only recently started to speak out about politics, we are so happy to see her using her huge platform for such an excellent, positive cause.

• Taylor Swift