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He wrote there are \"roughly 1,848 confederate statues of in the US,\" with more than half of them in the South, which he said is \"not acceptable.\"

\"No one should be protecting the legacies of confederate leaders and slave owners,\" he argued.

\"If we plan to move forward, these monuments must come down,\" he added. \"But let’s remember: Removing these statues does not erase our country’s vile history of oppression -- removing them is a symbol of respect for Black people in America and it’s a step towards progress and actual equality for all.\"

His comments come after Taylor Swift last month made a similar statement, calling for the removal of Confederate statues in Tennessee.

View this post on Instagram

I’m asking the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to please consider the implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments. When you fight to honor racists, you show black Tennesseans and all of their allies where you stand, and you continue this cycle of hurt. You can’t change history, but you can change this. 🙏

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Jun 12, 2020 at 1:01pm PDT

\"I'm asking the Capitol Commission and the Tennessee Historical Commission to please consider the implications of how hurtful it would be to continue fighting for these monuments,\" she captioned her post.

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