As of Yahoo News, Taylor Swift is making the headlines once again, and this time it is for her new music video. Entitled "Wildest Dreams", the music video have been making the headlines as it gathered numerous negative feedbacks.
A teacher of African studies at New York State's St. Lawrence University, Matt Carotenuto made a statement in one article [Salon.com] saying:
"So thank you, Taylor Swift, for proving once again that African stereotypes are safe atop the pinnacle of American pop culture,
The director, Joseph Kahn however stood his ground in defending the video. BBC reported that in his statement, Kahn defended the video by pointing out that "it is not a video of colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950."
"We collectively decided it would have been historically 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 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 screen time is Taylor and Scott (Eastwood).''
Viviane Rutabingwa and James Kassaga Arinaitwe [writers for NPE] stated that "they were shocked that in 2015, Swift, record label and her production team would think it was OK to film a video that present a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa."
They then added:
"packages our continent as the backdrop for her romantic songs devoid of any African person or story line, and she sets the video in a time when the people depicted by Swift and her co-stars killed, dehumanized and traumatized millions of Africans. That is beyond problematic."
Though Swift may have gathered negative comments, some African fans did make an effort to thank the popstar for donating some of the proceeds to African Parks Foundation of America.
Chancler Haynes, the music video editor posted a Tweet saying that he is proud to edit the video.
"Proud to have edited WILDEST DREAMS. @taylorswift13 donating to Africa is beyond dope. At my kribb, we call her Taytay.
