Taylor Swift calls for monuments to ‘racist’ historical figures to be removed

Taylor Swift has called for monuments which “celebrate racist historical figures” to be removed.

The singer said that two statues in Tennessee in the US are of two men who were “despicable figures in our state history and should be treated as such”.

She added: “As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things.”

The statues are of newspaper editor Edward Carmack and slave trader Nathan Bedford Forresst.

Swift added: “We need to retroactively change the statues of people who perpetuated hideous patterns of racism from heroes to villains.

“And villains don’t deserve statues.”

Black Lives Matters protests around the world have sparked a debate about monuments of people who have links to slavery or are perceived to have held racist views.

A statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square has been vandalised by protesters, while in Bristol a statue of Edward Colston was pulled down and dumped in the harbour.