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Post by Admin on Jul 3, 2020 20:12:50 GMT
Claim Taylor Swift said "We should remove the Statue of Liberty."
Origin Rumors are surging in the wake of George Floyd’s death and resulting protests against police violence and racial injustice in the United States. Stay informed. Read our special coverage, contribute to support our mission, and submit any tips or claims you see here.
In early July 2020, readers searched the Snopes website to find out whether pop music star Taylor Swift had called for the Statue of Liberty in New York City to be removed. Swift said no such thing, and claims that she did appear to be a hoax.
Some social media users shared an image that appears to show a doctored headline from Brazilian news outlet G1 containing the fake quote, along with a misspelled subheading:
Swift did not make the above-displayed statement. But she did say that statues honoring racist historical figures in her home state of Tennessee should be removed.
In Twitter and Instagram posts published on June 12, 2020, Swift criticized efforts to reinstate or protect monuments depicting Edward Carmack, a white newspaper editor who wrote pro-lynching editorials, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Klansman and Confederate general.
“As a Tennessean, it makes me sick that there are monuments standing in our state that celebrate racist historical figures who did evil things,” Swift wrote. “Edward Carmack and Nathan Bedford Forrest were DESPICABLE figures in our state history and should be treated as such.”
Swift’s comments came amid a widespread movement to remove monuments to racist historical figures, which followed nationwide protests against racism and police violence over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man whose death in the custody of Minneapolis police was filmed by a bystander and went viral, sparking outrage.
Because Swift did not call for the removal of the Statue of Liberty, which was a gift from France to the United States in the 19th century, but instead called on Tennessee to remove statues of racist figures, we rate this claim “False.”
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Post by Admin on Jul 4, 2020 6:33:34 GMT
Mayor Bill de Blasio showed up at a Black Lives Matter mural installation in Harlem on Friday, just hours after he bailed on his much-talked-about plans for a similar event in front of President Trump’s Midtown tower. Hizzoner did not mention his 11th-hour case of cold feet on the mural plans for Trump Tower — for which 16 police officers and several commanders had been paid overtime Wednesday night, NBC-4 New York reported — or the president as he helped to paint the civil rights mantra ‘Black Lives Matter’ onto Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. “This was the place where the message of black America was spread all over the country, all over the world. So this is a place where we must have this mural,” he told the small group of community activists. De Blasio also didn’t let an exploding political controversy over claims he misled the City Council about Police Department budget cuts stop him from again touting his spending plan for the NYPD. “We don’t need to just police. Policing is not enough. You don’t police your young people, you reach them, you uplift them, you support them,” de Blasio told the uptown gathering. His office promised that the painting event set for Trump Tower in Midtown would be rescheduled for sometime next week, but declined to provide any additional details. Meanwhile, the political storm downtown continued to grow after officials quietly disclosed that one of the biggest changes de Blasio promised to make to the NYPD — transferring the $326 million-a-year school safety division to the Department of Education — won’t take effect this year. That move alone accounted for nearly one-third of the $1 billion in spending that de Blasio promised he would cut or move from the NYPD’s $6 billion a year budget in response to intense pressure from city lawmakers and Black Lives Matters activists.
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Post by Admin on Jul 7, 2020 19:11:27 GMT
Lawyer, author, politician and activist Stacey Abrams is used to speaking out, but she may have addressed her biggest audience ever when she took over Selena Gomez's Instagram account June 16.
Gomez, 27, one of the top five stars on IG with 181 million followers, joined such celebrities as Lady Gaga and Gwyneth Paltrow in handing over the keys to their accounts to prominent women of color to ensure that their voices are widely heard as part of a campaign dubbed #ShareTheMicNow.
Abrams, a U.S. Census advocate and founder of Fair Count, tells The Hollywood Reporter that she was proud to have the platform and a conversation with the 27-year-old star. "I was privileged to be in communication with Selena. We had a really thoughtful conversation about the work that I've been doing, not only around voter suppression and the census, but why. This is how we create economic and social progress and these are tools, not ends of themselves but tools, for how we make the change. That’s what Selena is so committed to," explains Abrams, who posted a video sharing her story about a protest the night of the Rodney King verdict.
"We had extraordinary response from just a cross section of folks because that's what Selena draws. She draws this amazing cross section of people to her because they trust her voice, because they respect who she is, and because of the willingness to talk about tough challenges. We share a family conversation about mental health and mental illness. Her willingness to not only share her story but to encourage others to participate in solving these problems by making sure that we fill out the census so the resources necessary for mental health investment can happen — that's something that was extraordinary."
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Post by Admin on Aug 23, 2020 4:24:54 GMT
Vitoria Mario said she felt "overwhelmed" after she received a £23,000 donation from Taylor Swift to send her to university.
The 18-year-old student set up an online fundraiser after finding she could not afford to take up a maths course at the University of Warwick.
Ms Mario moved to the UK from Portugal four years ago, so is not eligible for maintenance loans or grants.
She promised to graduate with top grades "to make Taylor proud".
Vitoria Mario, 18, set up an online fundraiser after finding she could not afford to take up a maths course at the University of Warwick.
Ms Mario moved to the UK from Portugal four years ago, so is not eligible for maintenance loans or grants.
She promised to graduate with top grades "to make Taylor proud".
Speaking to BBC Radio London's Vanessa Feltz, Ms Mario said: "I didn't know what to do. Even the message was really nice.
"I don't know how [Swift] saw it. If it was someone from the UK I would be less surprised."
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