Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album dropped on Friday, and followers are in an uproar a few problematic lyric in considered one of 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 selections the singer-songwriter has made. Within the spring of 2023, Taylor Swift made considered one of her most alarming courting selections but when she allegedly started courting lead singer of the band The 1975, Matty Healy. Matty Healy has come beneath 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 lady…a chubby Chinese language girl” 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 mentioned he pleasured himself to photographs of minority girls being brutalized. Fairly sickening, and lots 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 not too long ago 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 selections.
Till she launched her new album, The Useless Poets Division, with a tune that made individuals 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 recreation the place / We might decide a decade / We wished we may dwell 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 online as individuals recognized how tone-deaf it was to reference an period of maximum racism, seemingly decrease it solely to calmly 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 just isn’t above critique. The road was a miss. There weren’t simply racists in 1830. Your ancestors {and} mine have been brutally overwhelmed, raped and enslaved. {I don’t care} that she doesn’t care to return to that point (the place she can be alive & nicely by the best way). It’s pointless.” Properly mentioned 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,” probably speaking concerning the very warranted uproar and judgment she obtained 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 selections. I feel we are able to all agree that as a star you usually face far 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 selections. It’s not unsuitable to be a fan of Taylor Swift’s music basically, however individuals 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 individuals to talk overtly and actually concerning the singer with out being downvoted robotically into oblivion by rabid followers. Within the meantime, possibly it’s time to fangirl much less problematic singers and songwriters.