Taylor Swift is calling on the Tennessee Historical Commissions board for change.
Taking to Twitter with a series of tweets, the singer, 30, slammed the board for replacing the statues of Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest that were destroyed during the Black Lives Matter protests.
“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 began.
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Edward Carmack’s statue was sitting in the state Capitol until it was torn down last week in the protests. The state of Tennessee has vowed to replace it.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020
Explaining, “Edward Carmack’s statue was sitting in the state Capitol until it was torn down last week in the protests. The state of Tennessee has vowed to replace it… 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.”
Swift says “replacing” the statues “is a waste of state funds and a waste of an opportunity to do the right thing.”
Replacing his statue is a waste of state funds and a waste of an opportunity to do the right thing.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020
His statue is still standing and July 13th is ‘Nathan Bedford Forrest Day.’ Due to social pressure, the state is trying to overrule this, and Tennesseans might no longer have to stomach it. Fingers crossed.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020
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“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 went on to say. “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.”
We need to retroactively change the status of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from ‘heroes’ to ‘villains.’ And villains don’t deserve statues.
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020
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 (@taylorswift13) June 12, 2020
Adding, “When you fight to honour 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.”
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