Beyoncé Forced To Remove The Word “Spaz” From Her New Album After Complaints From Disabled Community: “Screw You Beyoncé”
I, like most Americans, have used the word “spaz” many times (I think it was more common in the 80’s? that’s when I remember saying it) and never knew it was considered an ableist slur or had anything to do with cerebral palsy until recently, thanks to people on Twitter. Via CNN:
Beyoncé says she will remove an ableist slur from her new album, “Renaissance,” after facing online backlash and criticism from disability campaigners.
The 40-year-old singer…came under fire over the weekend when fans noticed the inclusion of a derogatory term in the song “Heated.”
On the track, co-written by Drake, Beyoncé sings the line: “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.”
Although the word “spaz” is often used colloquially to describe “freaking out” or “going crazy,” it is derived from the word “spastic,” which is considered demeaning to people with spastic cerebral palsy.
“So @Beyonce used the word ‘sp**’ in her new song ‘Heated’. Feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community and the progress we tried to make with Lizzo,” disability advocate Hannah Diviney wrote on Twitter.
Another commentator tweeted: “Screw you @Beyonce. You should be a role model, not making money from the lazy use of derogatory language. Shame on you.”
[CNN]
It’s interesting how some will deliberately choose to not consider someone’s intent (whether or not you’re a fan of Beyoncé, there’s no way any rational person could believe she’d use a word like this to purposely insult an entire group of people), and instead react with their own degrading language (“screw you Beyoncé,” or in other words, “fuck you Beyoncé,” which has a violent sexual connotation), even going so far as to tag Beyoncé in the tweet so she sees the threatening words. For people who claim to be so concerned with compassion and politically correct language, they aren’t very nice. Of course, the rules don’t apply to them, only to celebrities from whom they’re seeking attention.
