Taylor Swift's video for her latest single "Wildest Dreams" is being slammed by some critics for portraying white colonialism, and for using Africa as a backdrop for a love story of white people. But as the video's director pointed out, it can't be racist since black people also worked in its production.
According to Dailymail UK, the video for "Wildest Dreams" has a mainly white cast and revolves around two 1950s-era movie stars, portrayed by the pop singer and Gran Torino actor Scott Eastwood. Filmed in an undisclosed location in Africa , it featured wild animals like giraffes, lions and zebras. All proceeds from the video will reportedly be given to the African Parks Foundation of America.
Though the video showed two black actors in the soldier costume, many fans and bloggers still reacted harshly. Most of them took to Twitter to point out that the video is a "colonial garbage". One basher even said, "Omg Nicki how dare you accuse me of racism" *week passes* "Hey guyz watch me living my WILDest dreams in colonial Africa!!" Another critic pointed out that the film isn't really romantic, tweeting, "I didn't like the wildest dreams video, really not into rich white fantasies of Africa in the 1950s like... is that romantic?"
Madeleine Davies, a writer on the feminist blog Jezebel, depicted it as "Old Hollywood meets Out of Africa". "It's all passion and desire while on location, but once back in Hollywood and shooting on a soundstage, our poor lovelorn colonizers just can't get it together," she claimed. On another blog, National Public Radio, Viviane Rutabingwa and James Kassaga Arinaitwe stated: "We are shocked to think that in 2015, Taylor Swift, her record label and her video production group would think it was OK to film a video that presents a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa."
But then, Director Joseph Khan insists the video is a "love story" and has no political agenda. He explained that "Wildest Dreams" can't be racist as it also had black people working during the production. In a report by Page Six, the video's director made it clear via Twitter that his "long time producer Jil Hardin who did Power/Rangers, Blank Space, Wildest Dreams is a (super hot) black woman." He has also worked with many African-American artists, such as 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and DMX.
Meanwhile, the video debuted ahead of Sunday's VMAs and has gained more than 14 million views on Vimeo. But ever since the backlash of the music video, Taylor Swift has not yet commented yet on the allegations and criticisms about racism in the music video.
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