Why not start our new week off with a little controversy? I absolutely adore Azealia Banks and while all you white gays get your panties in a twist, let me tell you why.
Me and my roommate have discussed this at length and it can be summed up with the following sentence: "I feel like the real gays love Azealia, and the basic gays don't." Can you tell that neither of us are basic? Lol. That’s because both of us have developed thoughts and opinions away from the programming machine of our own accord, probably because we're in touch with our pineal glands. We can both discern realness from bullshit quite easily and it’s something you can only obtain by living on a higher-frequency. Some of y'all really can't detect bullshit. It never ceases to amaze me how many of you sided with this Cuban douchebag over a majestic lyricist Witch from Harlem!
People cancelled her for calling Perez Hilton a fagg*t on Twitter. Let's sit and talk about it. This is the same Perez Hilton who published a photo of a gun on a t-shirt that said: "SAVE BRITNEY!" in 2007. The same Perez Hilton who terrorized his former BFF, Lady Gaga, and contributed to the demise of her career during the ARTPOP era. The same Perez Hilton who published photos up Miley Cyrus' skirt while she was still an underage teenager. The same Perez Hilton who called Will.I.Am. a fagg*t at a music event on camera? Question: where is Perez Hilton’s cancellation card? Because that shit is well overdue.
If you hate Azealia Banks for her words, thoughts, and different opinions, but refuse to hold somebody like Perez Hilton accountable to their disgusting behavior and actions, then you need to restructure your priorities.
TL;DR: we've been hypnotized into hating a black woman at the expense of a horrible human being and this shit makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable. If you posted a black square this past summer for BLM but then shit on Azealia Banks, you're a big part of the problem. Go in the corner and think about how all your opinions and thoughts aren't actually yours, but have instead been pre-selected, created, designed, and mandated by algorithims and social media. We are supposed to be the ones programming the machine, but it is in fact the machine that begins to program us instead.
The media is also a part of this program because they're dependent on social media to distribute their news. Cancellation and the subsequent canceling is harmful because it robs us of a teachable moment. Azealia Banks has apologized for using the word but you won’t ever read about that in the news because it doesn’t get Facebook clicks, likes, and shares.
Long story short: y'all chose Perez Hilton over Azealia Banks and if this is the priority in your life then I'm sorry but we probably can't be friends.
ANYWAY NOW TO THE REASON WHY I ACTUALLY LOVE AZEALIA BANKS: I have a little sister who is 10 years younger than me and her skin is a lot darker than my own. Me and my older sister are plain white bread, while our little sister is delicious slice of pumpernickel. We all share the same genetic code through our bone structure, so when you look at our faces, you can see and recognize that we're siblings: we have similar eyes, hair texture, and our facial features share a closeness.
New Zealand is by and large an incredibly tolerant place, but you'd be a fool not to think racism exists there. Growing up, it was always the micro-aggressive actions that really stood out. There were many times we'd go into a grocery store with one of my Tongan cousins wearing backpacks. Upon exiting, and sometimes on occasion when entering into the grocery store, my dark skinned cousin or cousins would routinely get their bags checked for stolen goods before walking in or out of the store. Do you think the security guards bothered to stop and check the bags of me and my white older sister? Of course not. And it's one of those small and subtle moments that you realize that you're walking through life with a different experience from another, purely based upon the color of your skin.
This is light racism. The heavy racism I experienced in the USA? Far more sinister. The racism here is overt and far more uncomfortable. So many things I saw that really didn't sit well within my spirit. I don't want to get too heavily into it because it can depress me if I think too much about it, but to make a long story short: I learned real quick that if my little dark skinned sister moved to Texas, her experience moving through the world would be vastly different to my own. This is called privilege, and it is a tough pill to swallow. It is something I still feel extremely guilty and incredibly uncomfortable about.
This is why the whole BLM movement in recent years has been so frustrating for me because this is something I've been experiencing my whole life. Where the fuck have the rest of you been? Why did it have to become some trending topic on the timeline for you to finally sit up and take notice? It actually infuriates me that it took some of you being confronted with racism, inches from your face on a cellphone screen in order to galvanize you into doing something. All it should've taken was a little bit of attention to the outside world around you to realize that this world is racist.
I value people who have formed actualized opinions obtained through real-world experience over a newspaper article telling me what I should think and how I should feel about racism. Jesus Christ, open your eyes to the world around you. When you’re in NYC and you go to Whole Foods, have you ever stopped to notice that almost everybody working the cashier is a minority? Have you ever even bothered to ask yourself why this is?
ANYWAY, this Monday Music Song is called Liquorice by Azealia Banks. I played it for my little sister one day in the car driving around Auckland City. I explained to Hine-Chicken (my nickname for her) that the song is an anthem for all the dark skinned girls out there. The kind of girls that have been told time and time again through media images and portrayals of women that they aren't the typical standard of mainstream beauty: Liquorice is an anthem for them.
This song says: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I behold myself bitch." The song also says: "I am fucking beautiful and if you can't see the beauty in me, that's your problem, not my problem." In a world where we are conditioned to feel deep shame and a palpable self-hatred toward ourselves in an effort to buy more product, it is a beautiful and revolutionary act to choose to love yourself. The song is giving: "This world is going to convince me that I'm not good enough but you know what? I am here and I am good enough." Those are the vibes.
So this is the anthem I share with my little sister and we've since created a bit of a bond over Azealia Banks' music! Her favorite track is "Ice Princess" though, which features heavily on her Playlist rotation. Pretty AB and her music represent a whole bunch of different emotions for me. Which is fine because this is what a good Gemini does: they get you asking interesting questions and thoughts about life. Don’t hold them accountable though! Just enjoy them in the moment and let it be.
I want you to ask yourself: are all your opinions self-actualized? Or are all of them predisposed and hand-picked for you?
While you ponder this, can we please enjoy the sensuality of Liquorice's chorus:
"Can I catch your eye, sir?
Can I be what you like, yeah
I could be the right girl
Tell me if you like your lady in my-my* color
Can I be your type? yeah
I could set you right, whoa
How are you tonight, sir?
I’m living my life, ooh
Hope ya feel alright, yeah"
*For the longest time I used to think the lyrics were: "Tell me if you like your lady in my night color" - “my night color” is so much more powerful than “my-my color”, so I sing "my night color" instead.
Lil Nas X totally jacked his whole black Cowboy aesthetic from this music video. Nothing is new and someone turns 18 everyday.