"It's Racist!" Isn't As Sticky As Taylor Swift Video Critics Would Have Liked
The multi-culti police are right there on the job to cry racism when what they're really complaining about is an attempt at historical realism.
At The Blaze, Oliver Darcy links to the director Joseph Kahn's statement about the Taylor Swift video he helmed, shot to seem like it's a love story that takes place on the set of a movie in Africa in 1950:
"Wildest Dreams" is a song about a relationship that was doomed, and the music video concept was that they were having a love affair on location away from their normal lives. This is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa,1950.There are black Africans in the video in a number of shots, but I rarely cut to crew faces outside of the director as the vast majority of screentime is Taylor and Scott.
The video is based on classic Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as classic movies like The African Queen, Out of Africa and The English Patient, to name a few.
The reality is not only were there people of color in the video, but the key creatives who worked on this video are people of color. I am Asian American, the producer Jil Hardin is an African American woman, and the editor Chancler Haynes is an African American man. We cast and edited this video. We collectively decided it would have been historicially inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history. This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present and we are all proud of our work.
There is no political agenda in the video. Our only goal was to tell a tragic love story in classic Hollywood iconography. Furthermore, this video has been singled out, yet there have been many music videos depicting Africa. These videos have traditionally not been lessons in African history. Let's not forget, Taylor has chosen to donate all of her proceeds from this video to the African Parks Foundation to preserve the endangered animals of the continent and support the economies of local African people.
Here's the vid:
P.S. She also wears fur in the video, and there's nobody standing on the red carpet with cans of paint to throw on her, and nobody in the video is driving a Prius, the official car of Hollywood. Just a guess, but probably because these things also did not happen in 1950.
I'm moderately pissed that I had to sit through a shitty Taylor Swift video just to arrive at this verdict, but I saw nothing racist about it. Which is the only nice thing I'm going to say about this awful song.
The music is lackluster. The lyrics are terrible. Not only because of the non-rhymes like "nice dress" and "sunset" or "leave me" and "memories," -- For the love of God, somebody send this girl a rhyming dictionary! -- but for the use of vapid melodramatic cliches like "red lips and rosy cheeks," "nothing lasts forever" (herpes does) and "our very last kiss."
Uncharitable as it may be, I was hoping the lion would eat her just to end this awful thing. Where the hell is Kanye West when you really need him?
The only thing to protest about this video is the fact that it sucked bowling balls through a garden hose.
I deserve a freakin' medal for sitting through this sucky video looking for the racism. And I looked very, very hard. God knows the video itself wasn't worth watching. Didn't find any.
Patrick at September 3, 2015 1:18 AM
You're just mad because she's prettier than you are. Sorry about the herpes.
Meanwhile, your comment has this in exact unity with protesters: it's complaining. Triggers, racial distinctions good and bad - that's what helicoptering and camera time does to people with nothing else to do but be offended.
Radwaste at September 3, 2015 3:55 AM
No, Rad, you're sure you're not jealous because she's more masculine than you? I'd get used to it. So is Richard Simmons.
As for the herpes, I don't worry about it. My mother didn't know any better and deliberately had me infected with chicken pox when I was young, because it would be a much more serious problem if I contracted it when I was older. But most people have had chicken pox. The herpes zoster still lives in us. But they have a vaccine against shingles now.
Patrick at September 3, 2015 5:21 AM
That was a pretty video.
Yes, the music and plot were adolescent but it had like elephants and stuff in it. I like elephants. and stuff.
And I like this Taylor Swift person, too. She is hated by all the right people so she must be all right.
Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at September 3, 2015 6:34 AM
So yeah, bland pop music. Actually, the lack of political content is itself a strike against it as far as the Left is concerned. They hold to the Marxist philosophy that the only legitimate purpose of art is to propagandize for the Party. Swift's video failed to insert a dig at people that leftists hate; therefore, it is burgois and must be condemned.
Cousin Dave at September 3, 2015 6:42 AM
Great Video! Love it!
Steve Bensen at September 3, 2015 6:46 AM
Cousin Dave gets it, since it is not pushing their political message it is racist, with this weeks definition of racism.
Joe J at September 3, 2015 7:13 AM
I suspected that this video wasn't racist, since the outrage machine said it was. I was right. Shocka.
As for the video, well I love the clothes from that era; it's half the reason I watch Doris Day and Grace Kelly movies. The other half is for the architectural details in the houses. I do hope the lions in this video were CGI; there is no amount of money one could pay me to sit in the presence of an unfettered lion.
I don't think Kahn should have responded to the outrage machine so respectfully. It's past time to subject them to withering scorn and mockery. It's the only way they'll learn to just. Shut. Up.
Jamie at September 3, 2015 8:25 AM
I watched with the sound muted (I'm at work). So, I can still say I've never heard a Taylor Swift song. As such, I won't comment on her music.
Having to "X" out an ad every five minutes got terribly tedious.
It was just a wee bit pretentious to label this a "film" by Joseph Kahn. It's a music video.
I did look up the lyrics and they're straight out of a 13-year-old girl's romantic delusions. But, as I understand it, that's her audience.
As far as racist, there was no derogation of non-whites. There were no Steppin Fetchits or minstrelsy.
It was a pastiche of making a romantic safari movie in the 1950s; a dream of a glamorous era now lost in time. A bit corny and cliched? Yes. Racist? No.
If they'd included a tribe of dancing natives, would that have gotten them relieved of charges of racism? Probably not.
Yes, it's silly (and politically dangerous) to romanticize the colonization of Africa. But racist? Methinks the PC crowd is stretching the definition a bit there.
Conan the Grammarian at September 3, 2015 10:33 AM
I like the part where we make up vile crap about people we disagree with politically and then assign them responsibility for it even when it isn't there.
"... as far as the Left is concerned. They hold to the Marxist philosophy that the only legitimate purpose of art is to propagandize for the Party."
Seriously? The lack of evidence is the evidence? That's like saying the Bush family eats babies, although in every photograph they're careful not to be seen eating babies, because they're smart like that.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at September 3, 2015 10:35 AM
Gog, given the widespread anti-free-speech movements among the various leftist institutions today, and the number of leftist politicians advocating repealing or circumscribing the First Amendment in various ways, your counter-charge is simply not credible. (It's ironic that Trotsky originally defended the validity of classical art in a Communist society, as a means of bringing culture to the masses. He later changed his tune, but it's not clear if he did that voluntarily or under pressure from Lenin.)
Note also that I never said that similar sentiments don't exist among the Right. They do. But the Right's notion of anti-free-speech isn't dangerous at the moment because it doesn't have any cachet with the public. The Left's does.
Cousin Dave at September 3, 2015 11:22 AM
Hearing that some are calling this video racist reminds me again just who the REAL racists are.
I can't remember his name or even the title of the PBS show that he was on. The show was several years ago and it was about white farmers in Zimbabwe being forced off their farms by the new Zimbabwe government. There was one white African (I call him African since that is what he called himself) who didn't want to give up his farm that his family had farmed for several generations. It wasn't just that it was his family's history; but, he had made a lot of improvements to the farm (expensive equipment, new buildings, etc.) and he felt that the government wasn't offering enough financial compensation.
He made a comment along the lines of "a white man can move to Australia and be called Australian, a white can move to the Americas and be called American. But, a white man whose family has lived in Africa for generations can never be called African, why?"
I think he had a very good point. Unfortunately, he was eventually killed by African thugs who wanted all whites out of Zimbabwe.
The PBS show ended with the blacks who were given his and other white farmers' land. They showed some of these black folks now moving into their new homes - decent houses and fully working farms with expensive equipment that they didn't build!
Did PBS intend the irony (or maybe did they just not see it) when some of the black women were taking a look around their new farm and as they opened the doors to the milking shed they exclaimed; "Hey, what is this place?" Another said: "I think it might be for milking cows. Does anyone know how to milk cows?"
Really, it was no surprise that Zimbabwe then had a food crisis on their hands.
Anytime someone cries racist nowadays I take a closer look at them instead of their target.
As for the video it reminded me of "Out of Africa." I rather liked it.
charles at September 3, 2015 12:58 PM
I had a black friend introduce a white guy as his "African-American friend." They had both grown up together in South Africa and later emigrated to the US. I don't know if they came here at the same time, I didn't get that much of the back story.
Neither of them thought anything of calling the white guy an African-American. In fact, they were both proud of having come from South Africa.
Remembering that, I think of the grief Theresa Heinz-Kerry took from the liberal press when she tried to call herself an African-American.
Conan the Grammarian at September 3, 2015 1:18 PM
You know who can really write good song lyrics? Meatloaf.
Patrick at September 3, 2015 5:35 PM
"Trotsky originally defended the validity of classical art in a Communist society"
Trotsky story:
Lenin and his homeboys are preparing for the first Communist Party conference when a messenger runs in waving a telegram.
"Comrade Lenin! Comrade Lenin! Trotsky writes from Mexico City!".
Lenin excitedly tears open the telegram and reads to the group:
"Comrade Lenin - You were right. I was wrong. I should apologize. Trotsky."
The group cheers until a certain Rabinowitz stands up and says "JUST a minute. Let me see that."
He looks at the telegram and exclaims "Ah-HA! You're reading this wrong. It's actually:
Comrade Lenin - YOU were right? I was wrong?! I should apologize?!! Trotsky!".
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at September 3, 2015 7:34 PM
Charles- I remember something about that. All of the farmers forced off their land. Those farms became failures in short time because they didn't know how to farm. I pity the poor animals left to those uneducated farmers.
Of ourse we ham eminent domain here already... But that was ridiculous.
CatherineM at September 4, 2015 5:48 PM
The video is fine. Very English Patient/Out of Africa. The SJW are just using Swif to say LOOK at ME. I MATTER! I can call a superstar racist.
CatherineM at September 4, 2015 5:52 PM
You all cannot imagine the ecstasy possible when told by Patrick that one does not meet his standards for masculinity!
Radwaste at September 14, 2015 2:07 AM
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