Taylor Swift calls for removal of racist monuments in Tennessee: ‘You can’t change history, but you can change this’

Pop star said monuments celebrating historical figures who did ‘evil things’ made her sick

Taylor Swift has called for the removal of monuments that celebrate slave owners and other controversial historical figures in her home state of Tennessee.

The pop star has urged lawmakers to take down the statues, arguing that the “villains” they celebrate do not deserve them.

“As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things,” Swift tweeted. “Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such.”

She noted that Carmack, whose statue was torn down last week during protests, was “a white supremacist newspaper editor who published pro-lynching editorials and incited the arson of the office of Ida B Wells”.

Demonstrators toppled the statue of Carmack, which stood outside the Tennessee Capitol, on 30 May.

Around the US and in the UK, a number of statues celebrating slave owners and other figures with racist histories are being taken down in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Swift suggested that Carmack’s statue be replaced with one of Wells for her “pioneering work in journalism and civil rights”.

She also issued a condemnation of the state’s house committee for voting against the removal of a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, which has been branded “hideous” by US media. The Confederate general was once a top-ranking member of the Klu Klux Klan.

Swift argued that removing the commemorations would improve the lives of black US Americans.

“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,” she said.

Swift has recently begun using her platform to share her views on political and social issues. Last month, she accused US president Donald Trump of “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism [for his] entire presidency”.