Azealia Banks is problematic; no one is disputing this. Her recent Twitter fight with singer Zayn Malik and actress Skai Jackson is only the latest in a long list of conflicts and controversial statements she’s made on social media. It was this last conflict that got the New York born rapper banned from Twitter.
The issue started when Banks made a comment about the aesthetic similarities between her music videos and Zayn’s. Then, Malik tweeted two vague comments which Banks believed were made towards her. This is where things went from bad to worse, Banks began tweeting at Malik using racist, homophobic, and Islamophobic slurs. When Skai Jackson tweeted against Banks, Banks started attacking the 14-year old actress by taking shots at the actress’ career, age, and image. It was after this that Twitter users began to speak out against Banks and to report her account, until her account was canceled.
This isn’t the first time that Banks has made controversial statements and there is no doubt that these latest statements were completely wrong and extremely offensive. However, she’s not the only person that makes offensive statements on social media. In fact, any person who spends enough time on social media, especially on Twitter, can attest that Twitter is filled with many people who seem to thrive on making derogatory claims and harassing other users. Yet very few of these users are actually banned. While it could be argued that the reason these users aren’t banned is because they’re not celebrities so there is less attention on them, there still are some celebrities and media icons that make controversial statements yet they’re not banned either. Furthermore, Twitter has a policy that prevents its spokespeople from speaking about specific cases so we really can’t know what exactly made this situation different and serious enough to get Azealia Banned.
For now, Banks has been using Instagram to communicate with her fans. She has also apologized for her statements in what seems to be a sincere apology. Putting aside these problematic things for a second, Banks actually has the opportunity to be very influential but only if she continues to use her voice to speak against the negative aspects of our society rather than for attacking other people.
