What’s up?
It’s Sussan Mourad here with Clevver News and after only one tweet over the course of
the nearly two weeks of Black Lives Matter protests, Taylor Swift returned to the platform
to advocate for the movement.
Like many other celebs, Taylor has posted about the Black Lives Matter movement on Instagram
with some swipe up links to resources as well as a black square on Blackout Tuesday.
She also shared on her IG stories that she made a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund and she encouraged her fans to register to vote.
Additionally, Taylor took to Twitter on May 29th, just days after the Black Lives Matter
protests began, to call out Donald Trump for one of his tweets.
Taylor tweeted saying quote, “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your
entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence?
‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’???
We will vote you out in November.
@realdonaldtrump”
Taylor’s tweet got over 2.2 million likes, hundreds of thousands of retweets, and thousands
of replies.
And many Taylor Swift fans know that her outspokenness about human rights, social, and political
issues is newer for Taylor.
In the past, she got criticism for being politically silent, most notably not speaking out during
the 2016 election.
And in her essay about turning 30 for ELLE published last year, Taylor admitted that
she was just starting to find her political voice after taking quote "a lot of time" educating
herself about the U.S. system so she could speak from an informed place.
And while some of her fans have applauded her for using her social media platform to
speak out, others called her out for not being vocal enough about the Black Lives Matter
movement in particular.
One Swiftie took to Tumblr and wrote quote, “It hurts me too much to say this but we
are beyond disappointed with your lack of involvement towards the black lives matter
movement.
Where is the energy you had during miss americana?
Or last June when you got thousands to sign the equality act?
Posting a black square with 13 hearts is simply not enough.
You have a gigantic platform.
There is more to be done.
Innocent people are being murdered in the streets.
You can’t just sit back and watch.”
This person tweeted saying quote, “thinking a lot about taylor swift's documentary, the
whole point being her rebranding herself as being "loud" and speaking up about politics,
and how she has done next to nothing to educate her millions of fans on black lives matter
in the past few weeks.
how embarrassing.”
And this fan said quote, “Don't get me wrong, I love Taylor Swift, but it just feels like
she's doing the bare minimum compared to some other celebrities who are sharing TONS of
resources, going to protests, sharing their platform with Black
And it seems like Taylor listened to her fans because she took to Twitter again to make
sure her stance was clear and her voice was heard by her millions of followers.
She posted a series of tweets starting with “Racial injustice has been ingrained deeply
into local and state governments, and changes MUST be made there.
In order for policies to change, we need to elect people who will fight against police
brutality and racism of any kind.
#BlackLivesMatter”
And Taylor followed up her first tweet with an article by Barack Obama for her fans to
read.
She wrote quote, “This article written by @BarackObama is a fascinating read about changing
policy at the state and local levels.”
And her final tweet in the series said quote, “We need to fight for mail-in voting for
the 2020 election.
No one should have to choose between their health and having their voice heard.”
And she included a link to Vote.org for her fans.
Many of Taylor’s fans replied to her series of tweets thanking her for speaking out again
and using her platform.
This person wrote quote, “Thank you Taylor for using your platform to spread awareness,
share articles and encourage people to vote”
Another chimed in and said quote, “now THIS is how you use a platform with 86 million
followers”
And this fan wrote quote, “Thank you for being a celebrity who walks the walk.
Speaking up against the racism in society fully knowing how others will “cancel”
you, is admirable.
You will not be cancelled, but celebrated for helping others have a voice with your
platform.
Thank you.”
But others still called Taylor out for taking this long to post these sentiments to Twitter.
This person wrote quote, “Please know it’s NOT acceptable for you to take THIS LONG to
say BLACK LIVES MATTER.
The odd post once a week or so is not okay given the large scale platform you have and
how you made a documentary about activism and yet you’ve done the bare minimum #TaylorSwift”
And another shared this image and wrote quote, “oh she spoke.”
But it’s also important to note, there were many racist, hateful, and disgusting replies
to Taylor’s Black Lives Matter tweets too.
We are not going to give those negative comments attention, but it shows us all that there
is still so much work to be done.
We are all just getting started and hopefully Taylor continues to use her platform to educate,
inspire, and encourage her fans to get involved.
And here at Clevver we want to make it clear that we stand with our black co-workers, friends,
viewers, and everyone else impacted in this fight for change.
We will continue to cover these stories and have these conversations because, like we
said, this is only just the beginning.
We’ve linked resources down in the description below with ways to get involved.
And please take a moment and click right over here to watch this video to know why this
issue is so important to us here at Clevver.
Feel free to keep the conversation going down in the comments below and share your thoughts
about Taylor Swift’s tweets.
I’m your host, Sussan Mourad, bye guys!