Quote:
Originally posted by OnlyManInTheWorld
Lemme quote the NYT:
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The issue with this quote is that unlike ballet, cheerleading, contemporary dance, and the other forms of dance in the video are not seen as "prestigious" and "white" by society. Ballet is often considered a very classy type of dance, so for that scene to not include black people is sort of iffy, especially since black people are included in the twerking and hip hop sections which are forms of dance often considered "ghetto" by society. In addition, what makes the white girl twerking "trashy"? Would that also mean the black girls are trashy? Are they only seen as trashy because they're twerking? Is twerking trashy? That's another issue. And throwing a white girl into the mix doesn't negate the fact that every time the camera zooms in, it's on a black butt. The main part of that scene was Taylor crawling through the legs and then looking up at a black woman's butt while she twerks. It's exploitation and objectifying black bodies in the name of "humor", and it's done far too often.
But at the end of the day, I don't think it makes Taylor racist. I don't think Taylor said to her team, "get me some black chicks with fat asses". It's just that the way white people/our society views twerking is very "black", and thus is why casting calls for videos and movies are often like, "we want twerking, so we need black people." It's an issue, definitely, but it's a product of casual racism as opposed to Taylor being flat out racist herself.
Side note, this Sweatshirt guy is an absolute jerk. He's a homophobe and a misogynist, so calling out anyone for anything is hypocritical. He can sit down.
