At the MTV Video Music Awards Taylor Swift debuted her new music video for her song “Wildest Dreams” and received a lot of criticism.

Swift’s video is set in the 1950s and tells the story of two actors who are having a relationship as they film a period drama in Africa. 

The video co-stars Scott Eastwood and shows their roller coaster relationship as they have a secret affair on location for a film.

Directed by Joseph Kahn, the video was filmed in Africa and has been criticized as portraying white colonialism as there is a clear lack of black people in the video. 

People are outraged at the fact that Swift attempted to whitewash a video that is set in a predominantly African community.

“Instead of the cultural appropriation that has become almost status quo in today’s pop music, Swift has opted for the bolder option of actually just embodying the political exploitation of a region and its people,” said Lauren Duca from the Huffington Post.

These critics are missing the point of the video. This video was clearly supposed to be focused on the complicated love story between Swift and Eastwood. 

The video was not made to address racism; it was only supposed to be about two people in love.

Since Swift has recently been voicing her views on feminism and cultural appropriation it seems like the world expects everything she does to have some sort of political affiliation. 

This time the media’s scrutiny is going too far and they are looking to criticize something that just is not there.

Kahn recently released a statement explaining “there is no political agenda in the video. Our only goal was to tell a tragic love story in classic Hollywood iconography.”

The video is also a period drama and staying true to that, Kahn explains that filling the set with black people would have been forced and untruthful of what film sets were like in that era. 

Yes, the video lacks black people, but it should not be a cause for criticism. 

People are so concerned with Swift not culturally appropriating other races that they are actively trying to find things to pick on her about.

Kahn says it would have been historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors because then the video would have been accused of rewriting history.

Trying to appease everyone would not only have been impossible but it would have also taken away from the video and the love story that is supposed to be the main focus.

The video is meant to portray two people in love (Swift and Easton) and incorporates many beautiful shots of African scenery and exotic animals. 

Instead of appreciating the video for its cinematography or the romantic theme, people have picked it apart looking for ways to tear it to shreds.

Instead of actively trying to criticize celebrities, people could focus on the positives for once. 

All of the proceeds from Swift’s video are going to African Parks Foundation to preserve the endangered animals of the continent and support the economies of local African people.

This video is just one of the many cases in today’s media where celebrities are being unnecessarily torn apart for things they have not done instead of society focusing on real problems and things that people are really doing to perpetuate racism.