Rapper Azealia Banks is clapping back at people who’ve been criticizing her for bleaching her skin. “What’s the difference between getting a nose job and changing your skin color?” she said in an Instagram post she has since deleted. “What’s the difference between wearing a hair weave and changing your skin color?” she expressed, calling nay-Sayers “petty” for their thoughts.
Banks has been under scrutiny for the past few months for bleaching her skin. Up to this point, she has yet to respond to critics about her appearance.
The artist is owning her actions and does not seem to regret it arguing, “I don’t really think it’s important to discuss the cultural significance of skin bleaching anymore because just as African-American people in this world, or Black people, you assimilate. There are things that you accept not out of necessity, but things that become the norm because it’s just happening all of the time.” We’re not quite sure whether she was referring to skin bleaching being the norm or assimilating with the notion of European beauty being the standard of beauty that one should aspire to; either way—we have questions and some concerns.