Taylor Swift says there’s ‘literally nothing worse than white supremacy’

‘It’s repulsive’

Sabrina Barr
Wednesday 18 September 2019 16:03 BST
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Related: Taylor Swift explains why writing music is so important to her during Time 100 Gala performance
Related: Taylor Swift explains why writing music is so important to her during Time 100 Gala performance (Getty)

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Taylor Swift has lambasted white supremacy as “repulsive” in an illuminating new interview.

Over the past few years, Swift has become notably more outspoken with regards to her political views, such as her recent condemnation of the Trump White House administration at the MTV Video Music Awards.

During her latest interview with Rolling Stone, the singer was asked about an incident when a white supremacist website implied she supported their views.

“I didn’t even see that, but, like, if that happened, that’s just disgusting,” the 29-year-old said.

“There’s literally nothing worse than white supremacy. It’s repulsive. There should be no place for it.”

Swift explained that while she used to feel a “sort of political ambivalence”, she is now “obsessed” with politics and trying to learn as much as she can on the topic.

“We were in such an amazing time when Obama was president because foreign nations respected us. We were so excited to have this dignified person in the White House,” she said.

“My first election was voting for him when he made it into office, and then voting to re-elect him.”

The musician outlined her belief that a lot of people in her generation “just didn’t really know that this could happen”, in reference to the current political climate in the United States.

“But I’m just focused on the 2020 election. I’m really focused on it,” she added.

While in conversation with Rolling Stone, Swift also spoke about the impact her “girl squad” had on her fans.

During the artist’s 2014 to 2015 world tour, she frequently brought a selection of her closest friends on stage, including Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner and Serena Williams.

While Swift’s evident closeness with her female friends delighted many of her fans, for others, it didn’t spark the same positive response.

“I never would have imagined that people would have thought, ‘This is a clique that wouldn’t have accepted me if I wanted to be in it.’ Holy s***, that hit me like a ton of bricks,” Swift said.

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The singer explained that she thought her troupe of female friends was going to demonstrate how women “can still stick together, just like men are allowed to do”.

“The patriarchy allows men to have bro packs. If you’re a male artist, there’s an understanding that you have respect for your counterparts,” she said.

“It’s assumed that [women] hate each other. Even if we’re smiling and photographed together with our arms around each other, it’s assumed there’s a knife in our pocket.”

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