Taylor Swift Outraged Over Statues Honoring 'Racists' In Tennessee: 'You Can Change This'

Taylor Swift isn’t down for “racist” statues in her Tennessee!

As you’ve likely seen during coverage of protests, many statues of have been defaced, decapitated, or taken down entirely of men with less than stellar track records. On Friday, the songstress took to Twitter to express her outrage over the “despicable figures” honored in Tennessee.

The 30-year-old began:

“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.”

And for those unfamiliar with Carmack, who served as a Senator from 1901 until 1907, she gave a mini history lesson:

“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.”

“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.”

Along with sharing an article explaining his history, the Grammy Award winner continued (below) about Forrest:

“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.”

“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.”

Swift added:

“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.”

“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.”

And finally, Tay concluded her thoughts with a direct message to the state government in The Volunteer State to “change” things for the better:

“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.”

And she’s not the only famous Tennesseean who feels this way! Reese Witherspoon also tweeted out her thoughts on Thursday about the hot debate:

Is this even a conversation? ⁦⁦⁦@GovBillLee⁩ ⁩? A statue that honors a KKK founder ? We need to get rid of this disgusting symbol of racism. And every other marker of White supremacy in the state. The Great state of TN deserves better https://t.co/TSkthai2sW

— Reese Witherspoon (@ReeseW) June 11, 2020