Joseph Khan insisted it's a 'love story' and not about colonialism

Only two black actors were cast - and shown only in the background

the 'rich white fantasies of Africa in the 1950s'

Taylor Swift's latest music video is being battered by critics who claim it is racist and pandering to 'rich white fantasies' from a colonial era.

The video for Wildest Dreams, which was revealed during the MTV VMA Awards coverage on Sunday, has a mainly white cast and revolves around two 1950s-era movie stars - played by Swift and Gran Torino actor Scott Eastwood - filming in Africa.

There are only two black actors, who play soldiers, and they appear in the background. The mock film crew are white.

Director Joseph Khan insists the video is a 'love story' and has no political agenda. But music fans have rushed to Twitter to describe it as 'colonial garbage'.

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The video for Taylor Swift's newest single 'Wildest Dreams' has been condemned for being 'racist' and based on a 'glamorous white colonial fantasy'

The story is of two 1950s-era movie stars - played by Swift and Gran Torino actor Scott Eastwood - filming on location in Africa

The footage was also also slammed by a number of editorials.

NPR's Viviane Rutabingwa, who has an African heritage, said: 'We are shocked to think that in 2015, Taylor Swift, her record label and her video production group would think it was OK to film a video that presents a glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa.'

She added: 'Swift's music is entertaining for many. She should absolutely be able to use any location as a backdrop. But she packages our continent as the backdrop for her romantic songs devoid of any African person or storyline, and she sets the video in a time when the people depicted by Swift and her co-stars killed, dehumanized and traumatized millions of Africans.

'That is beyond problematic.'

The Daily Dot's Nico Lang wrote: 'An homage to a love triangle about white colonialists is going to present some, uh, challenges to an artist who just wants to make a three-minute music video to put on her VEVO page - and Taylor Swift found that out the hard way.

'Even the most casual observer would have noticed that - for a clip that's set in Africa - it's about as white as a Sunday morning farmer's market.

'The video wants to have its old-school Hollywood romance but ends up eating some old-school Hollywood racism, too.'

The mock film crew used in the shoot is mostly white. Only two black people were cast as soldiers

Critics slammed the video, which was revealed during the MTV VMA Awards coverage on Sunday, for having a mainly-white cast

Music fans rushed to Twitter with one describing it as 'colonial garbage' while another said they were 'really not into rich white fantasies of Africa in the 1950s'

The video's director, Joseph Khan, released a statement to Daily mail Online, saying: 'Wildest Dreams is a song about a relationship that was doomed, and the music video concept was that they were having a love affair on location away from their normal lives. This is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950.

'There are black Africans in the video in a number of shots, but I rarely cut to crew faces outside of the director as the vast majority of screentime is Taylor and Scott.

'The video is based on classic Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as classic movies like The African Queen, Out of Africa and The English Patient, to name a few.

'The reality is not only were there people of color in the video, but the key creatives who worked on this video are people of color. I am Asian American, the producer Jil Hardin is an African American woman, and the editor Chancler Haynes is an African American man.

'We cast and edited this video. We collectively decided it would have been historicially inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history. This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present and we are all proud of our work.

The two black cast members appear briefly in one of the beginning scenes of the video

One of them then appears on the left of the screen during a close up of Swift and Underwood

A host of animals are included in the video including a giraffe and a lion

'There is no political agenda in the video. Our only goal was to tell a tragic love story in classic Hollywood iconography. Furthermore, this video has been singled out, yet there have been many music videos depicting Africa.

'These videos have traditionally not been lessons in African history. Let's not forget, Taylor has chosen to donate all of her proceeds from this video to the African Parks Foundation to preserve the endangered animals of the continent and support the economies of local African people.'

Other Swift fans were quick to support her and slap down the claims. One said of the critics: 'You're reaching so hard and trying to look for any reason to hate her.'

In August 2014, the award-winning singer was part of another controversy when her video for Shake It Off aired.

A member of the Californian hip-hop collective Odd Future,Earl Sweatshirt, branded the 24-year-old singer 'racist' because of her attempts at break-dancing and twerking.

However, several members of the black community weighed in on the debate and came to Swift's defense.

Everdeen Mason, a writer and SEO for the fashion website, Refinery 29, wrote in an article titled Taylor Swift's 'Twerking' Is Not Racist, that she can't help but 'feel sorry' for the star.

The New York Times' dance critic, Brian Seibert also supported Swift.

He wrote: '[If] Earl Sweatshirt had bothered to watch the video before commenting, he might have noticed the carefully placed black faces among the cheerleaders, the contemporary dancers and the regular people, and also the trashy white women among the twerkers.

'For him to have accused Ms. Swift of racism without watching the video is as unjust as if she had accused him of misogyny without first listening to his tracks.'

James Potter was one of the first people to slam the video on Twitter, condemning the fact it portrayed the 'white fantasies of Africa in the 1950s'

Victoria M. Massie also criticized Swift's latest video which caused a storm on social media

This Twitter user, under the name of goth mum, suggested the filming took place in Ethiopia and criticized the lack of black people in the cast

This woman identified as Crystal referred to the content as 'colonial garbage'

Olly Hudsoon reproduced a mock conversation between Nicki Manaj and Swift

Allison was one of the Twitter users to support Swift, saying claims the video was racist was 'reaching'