A columnist has sparked uproar over an opinion piece she wrote describing Taylor Swift as ‘the sound of whiteness’ who gives her fans a free pass to ‘not feel guilt or shame about white privilege’.
In the extraordinary article penned for the Saturday Paper at the weekend, Zambian-born Australian journalist Santilla Chingaipe blasted the country’s Taylor Swift-mania after the pop star embarked on a seven date tour of Sydney and Melbourne.
Ms Chingaipe said the country’s fervour for Swift – including kids swapping friendship bracelets – wasn’t surprising, given her music apparently ‘confirms whiteness’ for a country that is ‘failing to confront its own anxieties about race, class and gender’.
She also blasted Swift for failing to sing about political matters such as the ‘climate emergency’, ‘racial injustice’ and ‘raging conflicts’, in what was presumably a reference to the Israel-Hamas war.
With almost 600,000 Australians having seen, or planning to see, Swift live in concert on this tour, Ms Chingaipe’s comment piece sparked anger on social media, with one commentator scolding her that ‘it’s okay to actually enjoy stuff’.
‘This is weirdly bitter, not critical,’ another said, while a third added: ‘You have no idea how songwriting works, why people do it, how they do it, and how awful it can be to force political/social issues into writing if it isn’t in the muse.’
In the controversial piece, Ms Chingaipe wrote: ‘In Swift’s world, you do not have to feel guilt or shame about white privilege – you embrace it. ‘In fact, Swift makes it permissible to buy into this world and many are willing to go into debt to experience it. She is the sound of whiteness. ‘She makes music that confirms whiteness for an audience large enough to be reassured by its whiteness.
‘This might not be its intention, but it is certainly part of its attraction, especially in Australia. ‘During her first show in Melbourne, she told the audience “songwriting was something that actually gets me through my life”.
‘This may be true, but why then, after more than three decades on this planet, isn’t she writing about things the rest of us women in our 30s are grappling with: the climate emergency, being repeatedly failed by our political leaders, racial injustice, the raging conflicts?’
Swift has a history of encouraging Americans to vote during elections, and endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election. She also spoke about her choice to break her silence on politics during her 2020 documentary Miss Americana, after she was falsely painted as a quiet conservative.