Taylor Swift urges for removal of 'racist historical figures' in Tennessee: 'Villains don’t deserve statues'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Taylor Swift is once again using her social media platform to make her voice heard.
On Friday, the 30-year-old musician and Tennessee resident took to Twitter to advocate for the removal of "racist historical figures" in the state.
Kicking off a series of tweets, Swift wrote: "As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things. Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TAYLOR SWIFT CALLS OUT RACIAL INJUSTICE AND SAYS 'CHANGES MUST BE MADE' TO FIGHT POLICE BRUTALITY
"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 continued.
"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 added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TAYLOR SWIFT BLASTS TRUMP FOR THREATENING VIOLENCE AGAINST PROTESTERS
The Grammy winner concluded: "I’m asking the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to please consider the implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments."
"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."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TAYLOR SWIFT SLAMS FORMER RECORD LABEL'S ALLEGED PLANS TO RELEASE ALBUM OF HER LIVE PERFORMANCES
In the weeks since George Floyd's death sparked protests over the treatment of black people and police brutality, many Confederate monuments have been damaged or taken down -- some toppled by demonstrators, others removed by local authorities.
Authorities in Alabama got rid of a massive obelisk in Birmingham and a bronze likeness of a Confederate naval officer in Mobile.
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In Virginia, a 176-year-old slave auction block was removed in Fredericksburg, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy took down a statue in Alexandria.
The movement has extended around the world, with protesters decrying monuments to slave traders, imperialists and explorers, including Christopher Columbus, Cecil Rhodes and Belgium's King Leopold II.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding that statues of Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis be removed from the U.S. Capitol.
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“The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation," Pelosi wrote. “Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.