Taylor Swift says Confederate monuments in Tennessee make her sick
For most of her career, Taylor Swift has been known in part for staying out of politics.
That’s changed in the last few months. And her latest string of tweets, which call out Confederate monuments in Tennessee, is the most recent display of that shift.
“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,” she said.
In a series of 10 tweets posted on Friday, Swift details the histories of Carmack and Bedford, calling on Tennessee officials to stop “fighting for these monuments.”
“Taking down statues isn’t going to fix centuries of systemic oppression, violence and hatred that black people have had to endure but it might bring us one small step closer to making ALL Tennesseans and visitors to our state feel safe — not just the white ones,” she wrote.
Swift has become an outspoken artist after years of silence. In May, she called out President Donald Trump for his late-night tweet threatening violence against protesters in Minnesota, saying that he’s been “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism (his) entire presidency.”
The artist has been candid about her displeasure over the sale of her early music catalog to music executive Scooter Braun, and her ongoing struggle with her former music label — exhibiting the struggles young women face in the recording industry.
