Activist gets slammed for suggesting Taylor Swift could end Israel-Hamas war

An anti-racism activist was slammed online for knocking TIME Magazine’s choice of Taylor Swift as its 2023 Person of the Year after claiming the singer could end the Israel-Hamas war with a single post. Saira Rao — founder of Race2Dinner which “facilitates radically honest conversations between white women and BIWOC” over dinner parties — called Time’s pick “white nonsense, white violence, white love of Black and brown genocide.” “The white American woman billionaire who could end the genocide of Palestinians with on [sic] IG post is TIME Person of The Year,” Rao tweeted. The tweet faced near-instant ridicule on X. “Being able to end a genocide with a single Instagram post is power I wasn’t aware Taylor Swift had,” journalist Yashar Ali tweeted in response. Saira Rao was ridiculed for suggesting Taylor Swift could end the Israel-Hamas war with a single Instagram post. sairasameerarao/X “I thought she made music. I didn’t realize she was an international relations expert,” another user wrote on the platform. “Man people question Taylor Swift’s power, thankfully Saira Rao is not one of them,” another tweet read. Others compared the notion of Rao’s tweet to Kendal Jenner’s infamous 2017 Pepsi commercial. “Just like when Kendall Jenner ended racism with a Pepsi can,” one person said on X sarcastically. Swift was named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2023. TIME / TIME Person of the Year/AFP via Getty Images “I thought she made music. I didn’t realize she was an international relations expert,” one person responded to Rao’s tweet. GC Images Soon after Rao’s original tweet had context added by readers with links to articles on how wars end. “Historically, conflicts and wars have not ended due to Instagram posts. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that an Instagram post made by Taylor Swift will end the war in Gaza,” the context states. In choosing Swift as TIME’s Person of the Year, Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs said the singer brought light in a particularly dark year. “In a divided world, where too many institutions are failing, Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light,” Jacobs wrote. “No one else on the planet today can move so many people so well.” Swift didn’t address Rao’s comments.