We Need to Stop Talking About Iggy Azalea (Article posted on FB by a friend, feedback welcome)

[ismnotwasm]

We need to stop talking about Iggy Azalea. Not forever, but for right now. We don’t need to stop talking about her because she’s a poseur—though she is and there should always, always be conversations about poseurs in the public sphere. We don’t need to stop talking about her because she’s white. But we need to stop talking about her because her whiteness has granted her a privileged position in a conversation about race that we've been having all year, and in all that talking, we’ve learned nothing and changed nothing. And now, as the year closes, we are still talking about her when she shouldn’t be the story at all; when talking about her comes at the expense of Azealia Banks, and what Azealia Banks has to say about the music industry and the world we live in is way more important that anything Iggy Azalea has ever said.

That Macklemore album wasn’t better than the Drake record. That Iggy Azalea shit is not better than any fucking black girl that’s rapping today. And when they give those awards out—’cause the Grammys are supposed to be accolades for artistic excellence—Iggy Azalea is not excellent. —Azealia Banks

Despite releasing her long-delayed debut album, Broke With Expensive Taste, to significant critical acclaim, Azealia Banks is likely better known for her caustic and combative social media presence, which has seen her exercise no amount of chill. She lashes out at her perceived peers and frenemies, her collaborators and producers, her icons and respected rap figures, the varied and many machinations of the music game. Unfortunately, the social media beefs have overshadowed the larger narrative formulating for the past three years, obscuring the journey of a woman who completed an arc from having her nose pressed up against the window of the mainstream music industry, to getting a major label deal, to growing disenchanted and striking out on her own. It’s a journey that usually takes an artist much longer, with many detours, false starts and regrouping. Told 140 characters at a time, Banks came off as often problematic, sometimes misguided and, quite frankly, wholly stank.
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More insightful than inciteful, she was all over the place, touching on industry politics and revenue streams (she’s happy to be independent and deal with her fans directly via the Internet forevermore), media conspiracy theories and race (“We have Eric Garner, Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin, and y’all fucking talking about Bill Cosby, like, what the fuck?”), the classification of hip-hop and the swagger-jacking of black culture—even bringing up reparations. “There are huge corporations that are still caking off that slave money,” she said. At this point, she broke down. Her voice cracked. She choked. There were tears, and she could barely finish her next thought: “At the very fucking least, y’all owe me the right to my fucking identity and to not exploit that shit,” Banks demanded. “That’s all that we’re holding on to—hip-hop and rap.”



http://www.complex.com/music/2014/12/we-need-to-stop-talking-about-iggy-azalea

[bravenak]

1. Remember when she called herself the "runaway slave master"?

Good times. Or when she said mexican women have boxy bodies? Or that time she questioned the english skills of Asians? Loved that too.

What needs to happen is, for all of her ignorance to go on displau so that she can stop playing the victim. That shit is old. Just google Iggy Azalea racist tweets and you'll see some shit.
http://touch.bossip.com/all/fancy-racist-a-gallery-of-iggy-azaleas-most-controversial-tweets#4

[ismnotwasm]

2. Pure asshole

Excuse me while I go post that-- there a couple of "art is art types". I don't usually get into it on FB, I pick friends carefully, but I'm not letting that slide,

[bravenak]

3. Yes, please do, correct them.

There are sites dedicated to her racist comments. I feel no sympathy.

[ismnotwasm]

4. That was the point my friend was trying to make

Others didn't read much of the article, or didn't know who she was. That's no excuse for knee jerk defense--my friend thanked you via me for the link.

[bravenak]

5. Awesome.

I'm glad yr friend wasn't the one not getting it. It's getting harder and harder to figure out what's real and what's hollywood drama.

[Bjorn Against]

7. Holy crap, thanks for sharing that I had no clue how racist she is

I had not even heard of Iggy Azalea until she was discussed on DU last week, I read through a couple of the threads about her but did not understand the controversy.

Now that I see some of her tweets the controversy is no longer a mystery to me at all, she looks to be an extreme bigot.

At first I was under the impression that she was just another hip hop artist whose style was inspired by black musicians, but I did not understand how she was different from someone like Macklemore. Now that I see some of her words I totally see why people are accusing her of wearing black face, she reminds me very much of the white actors who portrayed black people in movies like Birth of a Nation.

[bravenak]

8. I really didn't want to talk about her, she is a non entity to me.

I just felt like everyone was under the impression that this was a new thing, but it has been Going on for a while now. She is something else.
An she really plays the victim brilliantly. All those 'bigots' attacking her. I swear she's delusional.

[Bjorn Against]

9. I am certainly glad I took the "shut up and listen" approach on this one

As I said I did not understand this controversy at all when it erupted on DU last week, I chose to stay quiet about something I did not understand rather than to open my mouth and make a fool of myself and I am glad I did so.

This woman is clearly a racist and it is embarrassing that we had so many people on DU defending her last week. There is a reason they tell us to "shut up and listen" when people of color talk about racism and this clearly illustrates that reason.

[bravenak]

10. I felt bad when I saw them defending her. They did look dumb.

I just didn't want to be called a bigot for pointing it out, like Azaliea Banks. It can be stressful. I shut up about things too.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. Well ...

This woman is clearly a racist and it is embarrassing that we had so many people on DU defending her last week.

It appears to be reflexive.

[Number23]

6. We've really done a good job of NOT talking about Iggy in this forum

Primarily because she would be a waste of the calories it takes to type about her. I don't know much about Azealia Banks (did Iggy just steal this girl's name or how did two Azaleas come into the mix so quickly?) but I am torn because I've heard that she has said some truly ignorant, horrible things about gay men and gay culture. And that is completely unacceptable and makes me think that she's on the sidelines where she belongs.

But when she says things like this:

“And when they give these Grammys out, all it says to white kids is like, ‘Oh, yeah—you’re great, you’re amazing, you can do whatever you put your mind to.’ And it says to black kids: ‘You don’t have shit. You don’t own shit—not even the shit you created for yourself.’”

and

“There are huge corporations that are still caking off that slave money,” she said. “At the very fucking least, y’all owe me the right to my fucking identity and to not exploit that shit,” Banks demanded. “That’s all that we’re holding on to—hip-hop and rap.”





I can completely understand where she's coming from.

This is an excellent read. And anyone that thinks that Iggy's "success" isn't part of a looooong and exhausting stream of intentional and unintentional slights against black women and black culture (ie the "era of the booty" from Vogue and the cornrows bit mentioned in the article) is too ignorant for words.

[Feral Child]

12. I have to admit I'm unfamiliar with her "body of work"

I'm not a fan of Rap in general and certainly not to pretenders in the genre.

That said, it appears she's an icon worshiped by racists as a caricature of black culture. With that in mind, we need to be critical of her for the damage she's doing.

That's the extent of my input on the subject. I'm just not knowledgeable enough to be of much help.