op-ed | to black women: no, azealia banks is not the reason why “no one wants to work with us”

I heard of Azealia Banks in early 2012, while still in high school, still living in Germantown, Maryland. This was around the same that I discovered Mykki Blanco, Cakes da Killa, LE1F, and Junglepussy. This was the new exciting sound coming out New York’s queer, inclusive, underground arts scene—I use the term “inclusive” loosely, as it’s only as inclusive as New Yorkers ever could be. Around this time, there were a lot of underground musicians on the West Coast scene gaining traction like Chippy Nonstop, Kreayshawn, Antwon, Kitty (who is from Florida). Brooke Candy was hanging out with Grimes back then as opposed to Riccardo Tisci. Alice Glass was still a part of Crystal Castles. Diplo was still poppin’ and EDM seemed a lot less cheesy. Yung Lean was still cool (I’m not sure if this has changed). This was when festivals weren’t as overrun with mediocre tapioca people in flower crowns and crop tops. This was before people seriously hated Iggy Azalea. I think we were all a little less woke. These were much simpler times.



Back then, the only thing I knew about Azealia Banks was her music. I quickly fell in love, and I still count Fantasea as one of my favorite of her musical releases. She was a beautiful Black woman making exciting waves within hip-hop with a worldwide fan base, all while decked out in seapunk costumes and amazingly vibrant weaves of wonderful lengths. As a gaudy and artistic brown-skinned Black girl with a large personality and abrasive opinions, I saw much of myself reflected in Azealia Banks.


By vei darling*, AFROPUNK contributor


Fall of 2012, I moved to New York City. I also became more and more aware of the world and society at large. I believe that living in such a small city, so packed to the brim with so many different types of people, one learns about the world very quickly. It is this beloved, beguiling microcosm which exposes one to so much; one cannot help but be awoken to the sometimes harsh realities of life. It was around this time that Azealia Banks became more associated with her tweets than her raps.



Azealia Banks has made many valid points throughout her career, speaking to race politics; but she also voids most of what she says by often presenting herself in an ignorant and immature manner on Twitter dot com. By watching Azealia Banks’s interactions on Twitter, where 140 characters is the veritable equivalence of a soundbite that can destroy your career, I learned to begin holding my tongue and picking my battles. I began to think more before expressing an opinion so that I was sure I had a full-bodied understanding of the subject matter and how I felt towards it. I have learned the right things to do through watching the more unsavory behaviors I have seen. I have seen Azealia Banks have Twitter arguments with people, and fight much harder than I thought necessary. I have seen her call people “faggots” in an insulting manner. I have seen her use racial epithets that are unacceptable. But I have also seen in real time people attack her when she has said nothing wrong, simply for the sake of doing so. I have also seen people misinterpret statements that were incredibly clear, just because she was the one saying it. I have also seen a lot of her very valid statements fall on deaf ears because her reputation, as they say, precedes her. This would seem reasonable to me, because her statements of truth are often sandwiched between callous, crass comments flung so cavalierly and ignorantly, that it is hard to even want to wade through all of the muck to find what precious gems may be hidden. This would seem reasonable to me because who wants to listen to a homophobic racist? It would seem more reasonable if most Americans took as hard a stance against racism coming from other people as they did Banks.



Americans have jumped to attack Azealia Banks, as has the world over, but somehow one of the top contenders in the “race for the White House” is a white man who espouses absolutist, racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic rhetoric and also has absolutely no political background, except for perhaps lining the pockets of corrupt politicians who keep his products barely legal. The other leading candidate is a woman who supported Barry Goldwater, a presidential candidate that opposed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; referred to Black children as “super predators” who needed “to be brought to heel”; admittedly supported terrorist organizations, and worked to exacerbate tension and crises in the Middle East; and helped to create the school-to-prison pipeline and perpetuated the incarceration of Black men which has helped to fundamentally destroy the Black American family structure, as well as disempower and disenfranchise Black Americans on the whole. People like Megyn Kelly are allowed to be prejudiced and rude, only barely crossing over the line of outright racism, because they are affluent white people on FOX News.



People have rushed to attack Azealia Banks even though her conversation with Zayn Malik had not started off vitriolic at all. Banks said that Zayn may have copied her style—which she then followed up with saying that she didn’t have a problem with him, and he was a “cutie”. Let us note that Malik’s fans then barraged Banks with racist attacks along the lines of “nigger”. Banks jumped the gun by replying to an admittedly vague but definitely shady tweet by Malik by attacking him, though the tweet was allegedly not about her. It is always disgusting and discomforting to witness racism, as abhorrent as it is. It is no less disgusting to see a Black woman who champions Black rights and claims to be queer herself being the one spewing hateful, vitriolic rhetoric—but to others in society, it is seemingly worse. Malik may have addressed Banks’s nasty racist remarks, but interestingly enough, he did not address those of his fans. I guess the normalized racism found on the internet by regular people just is not as important to address as the racist and insensitive nonsense that Banks espoused. The hypocrisy of the situation was hardly missed by me. In terms of feeling righteous indignation about problematic behavior, one must walk the walk, if they are going to talk the talk.



As far as problematic 23-year-olds on the internet go, I know my fair share—Azealia may be one of them, but she is not the only one. And so, while nothing makes Azealia Banks’s comments right or okay, nothing makes racism flung at her valid—not even if it comes from the mouths or social media platforms of other Black women. Any Black woman in the music industry who says “this is why other people do not want to work with us [Black women]” is validating the racism and misogyny of the music industry. Any Black woman in the entertainment industry who says “you give Black women a bad name” is validating the racism and misogyny of the entertainment industry. And on a larger scale, any woman who says “you are an embarrassment to Black women” is validating the racism and misogyny of the world.



Most of these people are the same people who say that they hate being pigeonholed because of racism. They say that they hate the oppression of the patriarchy. They hate it, and they stand against it. They hate it, and they try to create more inclusive spaces in their industries. They hate it, and they want to eradicate it. But how much does one truly hate racism and misogyny against Black women when one can be found vilifying Black women, and painting Black women as an example of the racist, misogynistic stereotypes that one claims to hate? In the haste to distance oneself from this image of the “big, scary Black woman who is too outspoken and cantankerous for her own good”, one runs straight into the trap of internalized self-hatred and the need to be accepted by others that the white supremacist patriarchy has set up. In one’s decision to disparage against another Black woman in order to make oneself feel better about the negative stereotypes one has clearly tried so hard to escape and shun, it is made clear that one has not stopped to consider their own violent and virulent hypocrisy. Were it a non-Black person to say “see, this is why we do not want to work with you”; were it a Black man to say “see, this is why we do not want to be romantically involved with you”, would this be allowed? Would these statements and proclamations be viewed in the same light? And yet through the self-righteous indignation of these statements that pander to everyone except Black women, you have given them the support they need to solidify the legitimacy of their ignorance, their prejudice, their unwarranted hatred.



When a white male celebrity says or does something racist, misogynistic, or otherwise crazy— I never see other white males, let alone famous ones say, “Mel Gibson is giving us a bad name!” “John Mayer does not represent all of us white men!” “See, Donald Sterling is the reason nobody wants to work with us white men! He is so crazy!” “Hulk Hogan is embarrassing us white people!”



It is worth noting that Mark Wahlberg has been “forgiven” for some reason for his racist hate various hate crimes, including attacking two Asian men, and verbally and physically assaulting a group of Black fourth graders—something many people do not even know about! Even Paula Deen still is not seen as a villain despite her many outings as a racist. Often enough, these people’s antics are seen as ridiculous at best—a source of comedy, rather than danger. This is because the racist stigma does not exist. There is no standard that one must run away from to attempt to avoid oppression. There is no insecure need to stand apart from this paragon of terror that the world so despises. These people are not fighting for their basic human respect with every single move they make because they have already been given it. All they are doing is showing us why we maybe should not respect them as much—and still, for the most part, they are still at the top of society’s totem pole! They are allowed to be outspoken. They are allowed to be weird. They are allowed to be promiscuous, angry, depressed, mentally ill, ignorant, inappropriate, rude, obnoxious, disgraceful, socially unacceptable, stupid, disgusting; whatever they want to be, they are allowed because they are white men. All a white person needs to do when they do something socially insensitive and reprehensible is issue an apology asking for forgiveness, and they are once again deemed acceptable– except for, perhaps, Justin Beiber. Azealia Banks cannot expect the same level of forgiveness, because she is a Black woman. She cannot even expect the same level of vilification, because she is a Black woman. And everyone knows that each individual Black person is representative of all other Black people.



I have never felt the need to defend myself by denigrating Azealia Banks’s ill-mannered behavior simply because we are both Black as I have never associated myself with such behavior. Just as with my rabid protection of human rights, my abhorrence and hard stance against intolerance and ignorance is inclusive to all races, all genders, all sexualities. Banks’s racism is obviously wrong, but there was a lot of other racism and ignorance in this situation that seemed to go unnoticed.



Skai Jackson “dragging” Azealia Banks was the perfect opportunity for non-Black people to further villainize her and all Black women. A Black woman—or, girl rather— was saying all of the things that they wanted to say, but were too afraid to for fear of being seen as misogynistic or racist. I do not need to add my obvious two-cents that Azealia Banks was wrong because everybody already knows that what she did was wrong, unacceptable, and inappropriate; and everybody is already saying it. But I will speak out as to why Skai Jackson was wrong, and why every other Black woman making similar statements is wrong. They are righteous in their internalized racism, they are righteous in their misguided attempts at defending Black women, and they are righteous in their conviction that they are somehow ‘better’ than Azealia Banks and women like her. Because of the importance of respectability– born from the idea of whiteness being superior to Blackness, and Blackness being lowly, vulgar, and innately unworthy of respect–, these women feel that it is okay to shame another Black woman in order to uplift Black women as a whole. This is a widespread and dominating idea. This idea is wrong, it is violent, it is toxic, and it needs to be addressed.



I know that Azealia Banks could have said everything in a less hateful, less immature manner. I know because she went on to do so later. I do not condone or support her statements. Nobody in their right mind would. But that does not authorize me to further homogenize Black women, and corroborate the misogynoir of non-Black’s and Black men by making an example of her. No, Azealia Banks was not declared the spokesperson of all Black women everywhere by Black women. No, Azealia Banks does not represent the actions and thoughts of all Black women, everywhere. She does not even represent the actions and thoughts of all Black women in the developed world. Black women and people as a whole were never a monolith to which one Black person would stand as representative of until racism came about. Racism is wrong, so the idea that one Black woman represents all Black women, no matter how famous, is wrong. This all goes without saying; but I guess it only goes without saying to people who are not already prejudiced and puffed up with the bravado only ignorance can provide. There exist enough people in the world who will publicly denigrate, demean, and dehumanize Azealia Banks because she is a Black woman without needing the help of us Black women to do so. #DecolonizeYourMind

*vei darling is a multidisciplinary creative who aims to focus her efforts on social justice, as well as other issues impacting the world at large. growing up in the Generation of Pop, vei has always been interested in popular culture, and its relationship with and impact upon society. vei does not describe her as a pop artist, but an artist interested in and influenced by pop.