Azealia Banks is once again weighing in on whether or not non-Black people can say the N-word.
On Saturday (June 21), Banks fired off a tweet in response to rapper Anycia who wrote, “If u not black. stop saying n***a. period. idk why that’s so hard??? idc who u grew up with. if u NOT black expand ur vocabulary.”
“No. Everyone in the world can say and do what they want and black people really have no reason to be upset about it as offensive while we run around calling each other such an ugly word because we can’t expand our vocabulary,” the 34-year-old rapper tweeted. “If we want people to let it go, we have to do so first.
“African people do not use that word,” she added.
Anycia’s initial tweet was seemingly in response to recent comments made by That Mexican OT, who defended his own use of the word in a recent interview.
“What the fuck are you gonna do about it? And then second of all, I grew up loving these motherfuckers. I grew up fighting with them. I grew up eating with them. I grew up fuckin’ doing bad shit with them,” Mexican OT said on Angela Yee’s Lip Service podcast.
This is far from the first time the Broke With Expensive Taste has rapper shared her overall thoughts on the word.
“White people already have the okay to say the n word,” Banks tweeted in January. “The n word is the least harmful thing white people do to black people, theres SO MUCH OTHER shit we would like for you guys to stop doing that you clearly won’t so what makes you think we don’t know you guys still the n word in public and private???”
She added, “It’s not like white people didn’t invent the word. Jay-z reallllllly lied to Oprah and said we ‘reclaimed’ the word. Absolutely not…. The word is still property of white folk which in fact makes you lot the original , actual, and only n****rs on earth. If anything black people should stop calling one another n****rs and start calling you guys n****rs. Because you guys reallly are some fuckin pink faced ignorant pork eating sister tiddy suckin, cousin fuckin n****rs.. Yall are the original dindu nuffins. . . Damn.”
In April, Banks responded to a profanity-filled rant by Ye, where he made antisemitic comments and used a homophobic slur.
“Kanye is making no statements by once again trying to co-opt Azealias philosophies about the irony of having been persecuted for saying f****t by the same people who are happy to indulge in my use of the N Word,” she wrote at the time.
Banks then explained that her song “House is Okay” was the first she wrote with the intention of “consciously not saying the N-word.” She also said her upcoming Fantasea II album would not use the word at all.
“It’s an effort that must be made and I’ll definitely slip up but I’m consciously and actively trying to quit the N word so much. It’s so low vibrational and really can be such a lyrical crutch for the contemporary black creative,” Banks explained in a separate tweet. “I really do yearn to be as good as black artists were in the 70’s and 80’s and if you pay attention – when the N word became ‘ok’ to use in music – Black Culture started taking a nose dive. ‘House is Okay,’ is my attempt to restore crumbling house. Before the foundation really collapses in.
“The N word is very addictive. But words are power and I don’t want what it brings anymore. I’m so serious,” she added.
