With what at first started as a trivial pointless verbal exchange on twitter between rapper Azealia Banks and infamous blogger Perez Hilton escalated into an ugly homophobic rant on twitter. It all started when Perez began to question Banks comments about her feud with another female rap artist Angel Haze. Banks did not handle the interference well and started making suggestive comments about Perez being gay, referring to her an

See at first the comments were elusive and the tone was to vague to discern if Banks was making a comment about his sexuality or promiscuity but the meaning of tweets like these became clear as the conflict deteriorated:

Even worse is when Banks tried to cover for what she said in the most misogynistic way, first by saying that if it’s okay for her to use racial slurs in her song lyrics that we should be okay with her using homophobic slurs (what poor, horrible logic). Then she tries to redefine the ani-gay speech and what it should mean? Yeah it doesn’t make sense:

Finally, after having twitter and her gay fans in an uproar, Banks tries to issue an apology but the damage has been done:

Here’s my thing, I know Perez has done (and most likely will continue to do) horrible, vile things. I am not excusing his past behavior in any way because he hasn’t tried to make amends to the community that he belongs to and that he has knowingly hurt and insulted. But as our parents and loved ones have always taught us is that two wrongs don’t make a right. Her being bisexual does not excuse or give her a free pass to say anything else she wants. And I don’t care that Perez instigated it, that still does not excuse her behavior.

The tone was disgusting in Azealia’a rant and using Perez’s sexuality as a weakness was wrong, misogynistic and seemed like self hated. It had the tone of anything relating to a woman or effeminate gay man is weak and that really pissed me off. What further enraged me was the fallout on twitter and seeing some of her fans, gay men, defending what she said. And some of those gay men that were calling out Azealia’s homophobia were using racial slurs to retaliate against her and the fans that supported her. Some of them even saying ignorant comments like “I’m gay so I can’t be racist” were baffling. I was and still am disgusted by this entire thing. Hate is hate. Using any of these slurs is wrong, no matter what the context of it is. There is no re-appropriation as they will always represent times of oppression and anger.

We are all better than this.