On July 1st  American rapper Azaela Banks posted a Facebook video in efforts to defend the practice of bleaching her skin. Apparently, the process of skin bleaching is but form of “black assimilation”and should be taken as lightly as a 30 inch weave is.

While Banks  is notorious for stating ludicrous things via twitter, her comments last Friday were a new level of crazy.   The 21 minute video was packed with a number of mindless statements and ignorant insinuations. Here are a few of the famous statements, that couldn’t go unaddressed.

1. “I don’t think it’s important to discuss the cultural significance of skin bleaching anymore because I think that just as African American people in this world you assimilate.”

Oh, Ms. Banks. What a perfect way to open the curtains of controversy.  How could you say that it isn’t important to discuss the cultural significance of something that YOU called  BLACK ASSIMILATION? Not even three minutes into your grand defense video, you insinuate that African American assimilation is something that should not be discussed. Interesting start.

2. I see it as another assimilation thing. It’s just a continuation of the falsification of self with being a black person in America. . . now that falsification can extend to speaking clear English, or doing really well in liberal acamedia, or having a PHD or whatever us black people make fun of each other for. It’s all a part of that respectable negro stuff that we take on whether we are purposefully trying to or whether it happens out of osmosis or just being around it all the time.

Oh, Ms Banks. You are really misusing the phrase “black assimilation” You define it as falsification of self. And then extend the argument by insinuating that a black person who  speaks clear English or receives a PHD is a person who isn’t being true to themselves. Wow. You think that a black American speaking clear English is a form of assimilation and you also believe that comparing skin bleaching, a cosmetic practice to an education will actually aid your argument. I don’t know what’s worse.

3.Nobody was upset when I was wearing 30-inch weaves and tearing out my edges and doing all that type of s**t like that. You guys loved it, but what is the difference?

The difference is your skin. Oh Ms. Banks. The response you receive for changing the size of your lips, or the texture of your hair will never amount to the backlash that you will receive for changing your skin color. I don’t understand why this surprises you. Consider Michael Jackson and Lil Kim; REAL celebrities that received back lash for these sort of alterations. We live in a system where skin color has a lot to do with how we are identified. Additionally, a bigger statement is made when you change your skin color. DUH.

4.To say [skin-bleaching] negates anything I’ve said about the current situation of blackness in America is ignorant and stupid. What do body modifications have to do with somebody’s level of intellect.

Oh Ms Banks. Body modifications do not have anything to do with your level of intellect. You can be as bright as a bee and as modified as a calendar. But that is not the case here.

An intellectual black person would not have decided to speak for “us black people”. They would not have tried to normalize a practice while classifying it as a form of black assimilation.  They would not have even attempted to publicly defend something they understand has historical sensitivity. They most of all wouldn’t insinuate that black Americans in their true form are uneducated, and non-articulate.

So,  Ms. Banks. Body modifications do not have anything to do with your level of intellect. Your intellect has something to do with your intellect.