Is Taylor Swift's 'Wildest Dreams' Video Racist?

Is Taylor Swift's latest music video racist?

Days after the "1989" artist released the video to her latest single "Wildest Dreams" via the MTV VMA Awards, critics have slammed the clip as "a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa," as NPR's Viviane Rutabingwa put it.

"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," she wrote, also noting that this wasn't the first time "white people" used a similar theme, naming "Out of Africa" as one of them.

Incidentally, the memoir-turned-movie was one of the inspirations for Swift's video, which was directed by Joseph Khan.

The director had since turned in an official statement on the accusations that the video was racist.

"'Wildest Dreams' is a song about a relationship that was doomed, and the music video concept was that they were having a love affair on location away from their normal lives," his statement, as relayed to Entertainment Weekly, began. "This is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950."

"There are black Africans in the video in a number of shots, but I rarely cut to crew faces outside of the director as the vast majority of screentime is Taylor and Scott," he went on, taking note of Gran Torino actor Scott Eastwood.

"The video is based on classic Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as classic movies like The African Queen, Out of Africa and The English Patient, to name a few."

He went on to point out that those working on the video were themselves people of color.

"I am Asian American, the producer Jil Hardin is an African American woman, and the editor Chancler Haynes is an African American man," he revealed. "We cast and edited this video. We collectively decided it would have been historicially inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history."

"This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present and we are all proud of our work," he added, also saying that the video has no political agenda and is not a lesson in African history.

"Let's not forget, Taylor has chosen to donate all of her proceeds from this video to the African Parks Foundation to preserve the endangered animals of the continent and support the economies of local African people," he said in conclusion.

Some observers, even the non-fans, have supported Khan's statement and dismissed the racist allegations. How about you?

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