Because Taylor Swift is a white (middle?) upper class to 1%er she is a face of capitalism, intentional or not. I’m going to disperse Taylor Swift’s wealth, business, real estate, and general **Capitalist Queen** deets between supporting evidence that Capitalism is inextricably exploitative, and racist. Not wanting to come across as a hater picking on one individual when the problem is systemic, I have also included many (not all) donations Taylor Swift has made over the years.
The capitalist free market system is a system that normalizes, empowers, and encourages exploitation and abuse. The market was constructed and functions within a white supremacist society, which means that its outcomes uphold white supremacy. Ultimately, the domination and exploitation of Non-white people will continue to be an integral part of the liberal capitalist market system, regardless of whether this is done consciously or not (20).
U.S. capitalist racism, rooted in the historical structures of enslavement and settler-colonialism, evolved and adapted with the rise of industrialized conditions, resulting in the perpetuation of racialized exploitation (22).
In 2022, it was revealed that Taylor was ranked as the number one celebrity with the most private jet usage. According to The Guardian, her emissions were more than 1,000 times higher than the average person and though Swift’s camp denied she was responsible for every flight the plane took, it’s still her jet and was just another example of… [how] …she didn’t seem to care at all about the planet and the other people living on it (23).
Land, labor, and capital are intimately tied to power relations, and more specifically to white supremacy. Genesis I:28, “which claims that man ought to ’subdue’ and ’have dominion over...every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (20).
To the Native American, the land is a provider and a being to be cared for, rather than something to be exploited for the sake of production. There is a deep connection between the land and those that inhabit it, one that encompasses identity, life, and meaning. To sever that connection by viewing land as merely a means of production is a white settler perspective that ultimately leads to religiously sanctioned exploitation and abuse (20).
The plunderers and the looters of the colonial era eventually became the most developed economies of the world (21).
There's still more to read!
Sources:
1] https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Boys
2] https://muse.jhu.edu/article/758591
3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231904832_Peter_Pan_and_the_White_Imperial_Imaginary
5] https://aahabershaw.com/2016/02/22/boyhood-manhood-and-peter-pan/
6] http://komunikata.id/index.php/komunikata/article/view/236
7] https://animatedmeta.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/peter-pan-and-gender-roles/
8] https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/4462
9] https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/9569/1/fulltext.pdf
10] https://www.123helpme.com/essay/Gender-Roles-in-Peter-Pan-by-J-273202
11] https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Boys
13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_Indigenous_peoples_of_Canada_and_the_United_States
15] https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-native-american-mascot-chiefs-41397b038e03c01865d42a3f77766c98
17] https://www.ourkids.net/school/brief-history-of-boarding
18] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30125077/
19] https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1129868151
20] https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1153&context=suurj
21] https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/capitalism-racist-569746
23] https://www.refinery29.com/en-au/2023/06/11435466/blak-woman-complicated-relationship-taylor-swift
