Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album dropped on Friday, and followers are in an uproar a few problematic lyric in one in all her songs, which seems to have racist undertones. Earlier than we get to the content material of the tune lyric, let’s speak extra about how this tone-deaf tune lyric was simply one other problematic incident in a sea of many weird decisions the singer-songwriter has made. Within the spring of 2023, Taylor Swift made one in all her most alarming courting decisions but when she allegedly started courting lead singer of the band The 1975, Matty Healy. Matty Healy has come below controversy when he slid into rapper Ice Spice’s DMs, solely to be met with silence, and later contributed to insulting Ice Spice with racist remarks on Adam Friedland’s podcast. Ice Spice, who’s Dominican and Nigerian, was known as “an Inuit spice woman…a chubby Chinese language woman” on the podcast whereas these on the present started crudely imitating Chinese language and Hawaiian accents. Healey not solely laughed at these ignorant jokes and goaded them additional with extra crude remarks about different races, he additionally stated he pleasured himself to pictures of minority ladies being brutalized. Fairly sickening, and plenty of referred to as out Swift for associating with somebody like him, which can have contributed ultimately to the top of their relationship, though this feels extra like a PR transfer than a real regret.
Now that Taylor Swift has since been seen on stage with Ice Spice (which looks as if fairly the calculated PR transfer to salvage her personal picture) and is now courting soccer star Travis Kelce (who seems aggressive and problematic as nicely, contemplating he lately yelled at a coach in public and condescendingly mocked a feminine actuality television star who was gaslit), followers appeared to have amnesia about Taylor’s problematic courting decisions.
Till she launched her new album, The Useless Poets Division, with a tune that made folks take a double take.
Many TikToks have been created about this problematic tune lyric from I Hate It Right here, which says, “My buddies used to play a sport the place / We might choose a decade / We wished we may stay in as an alternative of this / I’d say the 1830s however with out all of the racists / And getting married off for the best bid.” This sparked outrage throughout the net as folks recognized how tone-deaf it was to reference an period of maximum racism, seemingly reduce it solely to frivolously add the caveat that she meant “with out all of the racists.” It simply appeared pointless and downright unusual. As Catfish star Kamie Crawford tweeted to a fan defending Swift, “You’re a fan. We get it. Your fave will not be above critique. The road was a miss. There weren’t simply racists in 1830. Your ancestors {and} mine had been brutally overwhelmed, raped and enslaved. {I don’t care} that she doesn’t care to return to that point (the place she could be alive & nicely by the best way). It’s pointless.” Effectively stated Kamie!
In yet one more problematic tune showing to reference her relationship with Healy, Swift writes, “I don’t cater to all these vipers wearing empath’s clothes,” presumably speaking concerning the very warranted uproar and judgment she acquired for courting somebody with a historical past of sexist and racist remarks. This looks as if Swift taking part in the sufferer and never taking accountability for a few of her visibly horrible decisions. I believe we will all agree that as a celeb you usually face rather more scrutiny over human flaws and errors—however maybe that is only a end result of many, many “errors” that at this level really feel extra like deliberate decisions. It’s not fallacious to be a fan of Taylor Swift’s music usually, however folks have begun to note the cult-like mentality Swifties usually function in after they refuse to acknowledge a few of the singer’s unempathic and problematic behaviors. Some even go as far as to harass, stalk and bully those that give constructive criticism. If you’re searching for a extra impartial tackle Swift that gathers all of the proof of her problematic historical past, look no additional than the subreddit SwiftlyNeutral, which permits folks to talk overtly and truthfully concerning the singer with out being downvoted mechanically into oblivion by rabid followers. Within the meantime, possibly it’s time to fangirl much less problematic singers and songwriters.