Taylor Swift is facing backlash over saying she wanted to live in the 1830s “but without all the racists” on her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.“
On the track “I Hate It Here,” the 14-time Grammy winner sang about how she and her friends were discontent with living in this current era.
“My friends used to play a game where / We would pick a decade / We wished we could live in instead of this / I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists / And getting married off for the highest bid,” she sang.
Fans were quick to point out that slavery was still legalized in America in the 1830s.
“There is no way Taylor Swift said she’d like to live in an era where Chattel Slavery was the law of the land and say ‘but without the racists.’ Like it was some casual microaggressions or something. Is this what we’re doing??” tweeted one user.
“pretty astonishing to stipulate that she wants to live in the 1830s, ‘except without the racists,’ and not mention slavery, so slavery still exists but everyone’s chill about it,” added another.
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“I know I can’t stfu abt Taylor Swift but of all time periods WHY THE 1830s??? The most notable event from the time period is the trail of tears like I cannot wrap my head around it? Is this another one of her dumbass codes?” asked a third fan.
“Taylor Swift wanting to go back to the 1830s surprised no Black person anywhere,” said a fourth user.
Page Six has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Elsewhere on the album, which was released on Friday, Swift, 34, seemingly took another jab at Kim Kardashian, whom she’s been feuding with since 2016.
In the song “thanK you aIMee,” the billionaire pop star sang about a “bronze, spray-tanned” bully who her mom “wish[es] were dead.”
“All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’ / And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel,” she croons.
“Screamed ‘F–k you, Aimee’ to the night sky, as the blood was gushin’ / But I can’t forget the way you made me heal.”
The Skims founder, 43, did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment, however, she looked unbothered while out dining with friends.
Swift also references her exes Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy on the album as well as current beau Travis Kelce.