Azealia Defends Decision To Lighten Her Skin

Azealia Banks has made the decision to lighten her skin, a choice she felt the need to explain and defend in a Facebook Live video posted today. The rapper suggests that fans have been asking her questions about her reasoning for the process, which she addresses in the 20-minute clip. 

"I don't really think it's important to discuss the cultural significance of skin bleaching anymore because I think that, just as African-American people, just as black people in this world, you assimilate, and there are things you accept, not just out of necessity but things become norm because they just happen all the time," she said. "I guess people see the skin-bleaching thing as something different but I see it as another ... assimilation thing. It's a continuation of the falsification of self that comes with being a black person in America."



Banks went on to compare the process to wearing a weave or getting a nose job. "To say that it negates what I've been saying about blackness in America is ignorant and just stupid," she explained. "Nobody was upset when I was [wearing] 30-inch weaves, tearing out my edges, and doing all types of shit like that."

In a recent Instagram post, Azealia revealed that she is writing an article that will explain the differences between skin bleaching, skin lightening, skin whitening, and skin brightening. The full Facebook video post can be found above.