Taylor Swift has taken to Twitter to call for racist monuments to be permanently removed, after protesters in the state of Tennessee tore down a statue of white supremacist Edward Carmack.
As statues of figures like Christopher Columbus have been toppled by protesters around the US and internationally, the singer wrote about her adopted home state, saying:
“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.”
The state of Tennessee has vowed to replace the statue of Carmack that was torn down last week, but Taylor Swift criticised this decision, saying:
“FYI, he was a white supremacist newspaper editor who published pro-lynching editorials and incited the arson of the office of Ida B. Wells (who actually deserves a hero’s statue for her pioneering work in journalism and civil rights). Replacing his statue is a waste of state funds and a waste of an opportunity to do the right thing.”
She also pointed out a “monstrosity” of a statue commemorating Nathan Bedford Forest, a “brutal slave trader and the first grand wizard of the Ky Klux Klan” who massacred dozens of black Union soldiers during the first US civil war.
Then we get to this monstrosity. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brutal slave trader and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who, during the Civil War, massacred dozens of black Union soldiers in Memphis. https://t.co/n2DiEt9F3P
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020
She continued:
“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.”
The singer said that she has asked state authorities to reconsider fighting for such monuments to stay up, adding:
“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.”
Taylor Swift has also been critical of Donald Trump in recent weeks, accusing him of “stoking the fires of white supremacy” and urging Americans to vote him out in November.
