Taylor Swift faces backlash for lyric about wanting to live in ‘the 1830s’ on new ‘TTPD’ album
Taylor Swift is facing backlash for saying she wanted to live in the 1830s “but without all the racists” in her new album Tortured Poets Oath: The Anthology.
On “I Hate It Here,” the 14-time Grammy Award winner sings about how unhappy she and her friends are living in this current era.
“My friends used to play a game where / We pick a decade / We wish we lived instead of this / I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists / And marriage to the highest bidder,” she sang.
Fans were quick to point out that slavery was still legal in America in the 1830s.
“There’s no way Taylor Swift could say she wanted to live in an era where slavery was the law of the land and say ‘but without the racists’. As if it was some casual microaggression or something. Is that what we do??” one user tweeted.
Another added: “Amazing that she stipulates that she wants to live in the 1830s, ‘except without the racists’, and doesn’t mention slavery, so slavery still exists but everyone is cold about it.”
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“I know I can’t relate to Taylor Swift but in all time periods why the 1830s??? The highlight of that time period is the trail of tears like I can’t wrap my head around it? Is this another one of her stupid symbols?” a fan asked. third.
“Taylor Swift wanting to go back to the 1830s doesn’t surprise any black person anywhere,” a fourth user said.
Page Six reached out to Swift’s rep for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Elsewhere in the album, which was released on Friday, Swift, 34, appears to take another jab at Kim Kardashian, with whom she has been feuding since 2016.
In the song “thanK you aIMee,” the billionaire pop star sang about the “bronzed, tanned” bully her mother “wish[es] “We are dead.”
“All that time you were throwing punches, I was building something / And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel,” she sings.
“‘f**k you, Amy’ I screamed into the night sky, as the blood flowed / 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 seemed unfazed while dining with friends.
Swift also references her exes Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy on the album as well as current beau Travis Kelce.