Taylor Swift in racism row after posing with fan wearing swastika daubed on shirt

[Mrs P]

Taylor Swift in racism row after posing with fan wearing swastika daubed on shirt



By Donna Mcconnell
Last updated at 2:08 PM on 30th October 2009
Country singer Taylor Swift has been forced to defend claims she is a racist after being photographed with her arm around a man wearing a swastika on his T-shirt.
Taylor, 17, was pictured with a man at the party of pop star Katy Perry which took place on the weekend.
Katy had asked all her guests to dress in white for the Charlie And The Chocolate Factory-themed party at restaurant The Beach On Sunset in West Hollywood.
And it seems that one guest took their customising a little too far.


Not a good look: Taylor Swift was caught up in a racism row after posing for this picture with a model she met at Katy Perry's 25th birthday party


Party girl: Swift was wearing the initials 'JH' - which added to the furore


The situation was made worse by the fact Swift was wearing the initials 'JH' - which often stands for 'Jew Hater' - on her own shirt.


However, the initials were later found to stand for friend Julianne Hough.

Miss Hough, 21, is a professional dancer on the US version of Strictly Come Dancing, and a country music singer like friend Taylor.
Last weekend the LA venue was transformed into Willy Wonka's factory, but birthday girl Katy did not tell guests they would be doused with neon paint before the night was over.
According to reports, model AJ English who was wearing the offensive T-shirt came forward to say that the mark on his shirt started out as an 'X' but was 'perverted' as the night went on.

English, 22, said it's possible the singer did not see the Nazi symbol on his chest when he pulled her in for a photo the other night.
He added that he was 'not a racist' and doesn't support the Nazi agenda.

And from micro-blogging site Twitter, he tweeted an apology to the country music star who was recently humiliated by rapper Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards.
English tweeted: 'Front page of TMZ.... sorry Taylor...'
The singer's spokesperson defended the star for posing with the model after the image surfaced online.
Swift's spokesperson distanced the 19-year-old from English saying that she did not even know him.
The source told TMZ: 'Taylor took pictures with about 100 people that night...
'She doesn't know who this guy is and she didn't realise what was on his shirt.'


Bit of a mess: Taylor and friend Julianne Hough, a professional dancer on Dancing With The Stars seen leaving the party on the weekend


Read more: Taylor Swift in racism row after posing with fan wearing swastika on shirt | Mail Online

[Sarzy]

Oh please. She probably didn't even take any notice of what was on his t-shirt.

[Sundance]

Celebs have their picture taken with so many fans I doubt they pay much attention to fashion. Honestly people just look for things to bitch about.

[msdeb]

In her defense, she posed with over 100 people for pictures at that party. Why aren't people pissed off at the dick with swastika on his shirt. Leave her alone

[maryk]

I even feel bad for the guy he couldn't have done that himself.

[celeb_2006]

I guess this is truly a sorry IF anyone was offended, ha ha ha ha!!!

[sparkly]

Since it was a celeb's birthday party, the guy most likely isn't a regular fan, but someone in the business. Regardless, a swastika is hard to miss and isn't something that I would personally condone. I'm not saying she's racist, just really stupid about the whole thing. Most people I know would flat out refuse to pose for a pic with someone wearing a swastika.

[AgentOrange]

Originally Posted by msdeb

In her defense, she posed with over 100 people for pictures at that party. Why aren't people pissed off at the dick with swastika on his shirt. Leave her alone

It wasn't a swastika, it was an "X" that got "perverted".

[Trixie]

Originally Posted by sparkly

Since it was a celeb's birthday party, the guy most likely isn't a regular fan, but someone in the business. Regardless, a swastika is hard to miss and isn't something that I would personally condone. I'm not saying she's racist, just really stupid about the whole thing. Most people I know would flat out refuse to pose for a pic with someone wearing a swastika.

The article says he's "model AJ English." Here's his myspace, and what a coincidence, he uses a swastika symbol there.

MySpace - 卍 - 22 - Male - Los Angeles, California - myspace.com/ajenglish

[Nevan]

I saw this yesterday on another site, and I really don't think Taylor even noticed. Like someone said above, she posed with over 100 people that night. It was probably a 15 second encounter. She's a sweet kid and I *really* don't think she would have posed with him had she realized what was on his shirt.

[bellini]

That's really bad luck though. She's standing next to a guy with a swastika while having "JH" on her dress. If you were looking it from the perspective that JH stands for Jew Hater, a perfect storm.

I doubt she even noticed though.

[Sundance]

Originally Posted by bellini

That's really bad luck though. She's standing next to a guy with a swastika while having "JH" on her dress. If you were looking it from the perspective that JH stands for Jew Hater, a perfect storm.

I doubt she even noticed though.

I doubt she even knows about the JH thing. I think it was just an unfortunate coincidence. But yeah, perfect storm is a good description.

[eeyore0101]

Originally Posted by Trixie

The article says he's "model AJ English." Here's his myspace, and what a coincidence, he uses a swastika symbol there.

MySpace - 卍 - 22 - Male - Los Angeles, California - myspace.com/ajenglish

Holy crap!! So much for it being an x that got perverted - he's got the freaking things all over his MySpace.

Sick kid.

[nana55]

She is very young and probably never even noticed. Cut her some slack. If she was pointing at it, maybe I would rag on her, but she is kind of young and naive to understand the implications.

[TheONe]

Originally Posted by Trixie

The article says he's "model AJ English." Here's his myspace, and what a coincidence, he uses a swastika symbol there.

MySpace - 卍 - 22 - Male - Los Angeles, California - myspace.com/ajenglish

The dude is an idiot...also I saw like 10 more pictures of this party on ET yesterday and she was actually dancing with him at one point so I'm sure that she saw it. She probably just wasn't thinking about the backlash because she didn't have the shirt on herself...