Mark Romanek, the director of the
Shake It Off video, claimed that the video is color-blind and implies that it is therefore not racist. That may have been his and Swift's intention, but color-blind art is still racist, as
Monnica T. Williams' article in Psychology Today explains.
The racial messages in the
Shake It Off video are offensive, but the timing of its release was insensitive as well, given the anti-racism organizing that has gained momentum since Michael Brown was murdered by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. For more resources on what's happening in Ferguson and around the movement to stop racism in the United States, please head over to
Black Lives Matter.
Quakers have a reputation for working on racial justice in the past, but Quaker history with this particular issue has been mixed indeed.
Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship by Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye goes into further detail on Quakers and racial justice through history.