Azealia Banks On March For Our Lives: 'I Don't See Any Of These Kids As Heroic Or Brave...'
The March For Our Lives protests, a youth-organized movement following the firestorm of fatal high school shootings demanding more stringent gun control in America, brought out dozens of celebrities who showed up in support of the cause.
Harlem femcee Azealia Banks was not one of them, however, and her reasons why are worth a much-needed conversation regarding race and socio-political issues.
In the now-deleted Instagram post, the Ice Princess posted a meme that shows a white man plugging his ears beside text reading, “When Black Kids Talk About Police Violence.” Below, there’s a photo of TIME Magazine’s cover celebrating Emma González, a leading voice in March For Our Lives, and other non-Black youths of the gun control movement demonstrations. Beside this photo, the text reads, “When White Kids Talk About Gun Control.”
Azealia jumped right into it, pointing out that Black youths were cold-shouldered when they took to the streets to demand justice against police violence.
“Miss me with the bullsh**,” she wrote. “As if you’d see my Black a** at some rally for gun control when everyone ignored every advance made by Black youth to speak out about police violence...”
Not only were Black children ignored, she added, but more police violence erupted in response to their cries—not support from Hollywood and other influential voices.
“Black people have been protesting gun violence forever!!” she voiced. “I don’t see any of these kids as heroic or brave, when Black kids have been fighting the good good fight for ages.”
She made sure to state that her sentiment wasn’t a “battle of the struggles,” however, there’s a clear discrepancy in who supports certain causes when race and color is involved. Azealia prefers to save her voice for movements that affect her and her community, she said.
“White America’s obsession with guns is white America’s problem,” she concluded. “Let the liberals and conservatives battle it out…tired of helping left white America fight for their causes while they ALWAYS turn [a] blind eye to ours. I’m still waiting for a Democratic politician to issue an official apology for slavery…”
Read her full statement below. Does she make a good point?