An Asian American actress who has made her bread and butter doing comedy and speaking in ebonics is being canceled by the Twitter mob for appropriating African American culture. This is justice!
After a lengthy groveling session on Twitter in which she admitted guilt and vowed to do better, Crazy Rich Asians and Nora From Queens star Awkwafina said she was getting off Twitter for good after being mobbed for her speaking “African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)” throughout her career.
AAVE apparently is the politically correct name of ebonics, or that brand of English that contains a lot of slang typically found in rap music that’s uttered by many in the African American community.
According to pop culture site BoundingIntoComics.com, “criticisms” of her using AAVE have “only continued to grow, eventually culminating in a number of outraged think pieces published in both the leadup to Shang-Chi’s premiere and the aftermath of her nomination for an NAACP Image Award.”
Awkwafina has acquired fame in part due to her cool, streetwise comedic persona, much of which she attributes to her love of Hip/Hop culture. Though ridiculous critics have accused her of stealing black culture from black people, and considering these same people are the ones who think that U.S. culture continues to oppress African Americans, they’ve put her in that boat.
After years of dealing with these ridiculous snipes at her, Awkwafina took to Twitter on February 5 to apologize for her behavior, explain why she did it and declared her leaving the platform indefinitely. Of course the stupidity of this is that it legitimizes the insane allegations of the vicious Twitter mob.
At the beginning of her long, agonizing thread Awkwafina had to give voice to the oppression of black people in this country which she has undoubtedly contributed to by using the words “yo” and “daaaaaamn.”
She tweeted, “It is a group that is disproportionately affected by institutionalized policies and law enforcement policies – all the while having historically and routinely seen their culture stolen, exploited and appropriated by the *dominant culture* for monetary gain.” Oh yes. And who are we, the oppressive United States citizens, to even look them in the eye?
The actress added that this exploitation still continues today, and explained that many people may see it more as a “convoluted mixture of the ‘internet TikTok slang generation’ that liberally uses AAVE,” combined with how “ubiquitous” Hip/Hop is in our music culture.
Of course that’s exactly what it is, and that’s precisely why Awkwafina is famous for it, but no, she couldn’t admit that very reasonable explanation as to why she uses “AAVE.” She said she “will always listen and work tirelessly to understand the history and context of AAVE, what is deemed appropriate or backwards” as a “Non-Black POC (person of color).”
In subsequent tweets, the actress declared that she was getting off Twitter:
Yeah, Awkwafina, you’ve really committed a terrible sin. May heaven have mercy on your soul for rap being your favorite genre of music and for your liberal use of the phrase "WASSUP!"
