Taylor Swift has condemned the monuments to Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest in Tennessee, urging the state not to replace Carmack’s statue — which was taken down on May 30 by protesters — and to consider the “implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments.”
In a Friday thread on Twitter, the singer said it made her feel “sick” that there were still monuments in her home state that “celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things.” She went on to explain that Carmack 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)” while Forrest was a Confederate soldier who was a “brutal slave trader and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.”
“Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such,” she wrote. “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.”
Swift also urged the state not to replace Carmack’s statue and asked the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to “consider the implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments.”
“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 wrote.
Read her full thread below:
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
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
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