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Dublin: 10 °C Tuesday 19 March, 2024
Racism

Azealia Banks called Irish women 'ugly', so Irish people proceeded to spend the night proving her right

Azealia Banks has received numerous racist messages and threats ahead of her Dublin gig.

PastedImage-29397 Azealia Banks / Instagram Azealia Banks / Instagram / Instagram

IF YOU KNOW anything about Azealia Banks, you’ll know that she’s the perfect candidate for Celebrity Big Brother. If she was the first contestant into the house, she’d find a way to start an argument with the furniture while waiting for the other housemates to arrive.

It’s likely that the only reason we haven’t seen her on reality TV yet, is because she’s probably a bit of a liability. (See: The entire situation with Elon Musk and Grimes). Who knows whose dirty laundry she’d air out on live TV, if given the chance. Her Instagram stories are always a source of pure scandal, entertainment and plenty of drama (as well as some soap).

Over the last year or two, she has completely managed to rebuild her career with the help of her Instagram stories and her successful soap business, to the point where she’s back selling out international tours. The last time she sold out Dublin’s Academy was at the height of her single 212‘s commercial success in 2013, and now in 2019 she’s back with as much force as ever. 

Yesterday, she made headlines after she removed herself from an Aer Lingus flight and uploaded a video to Instagram crying about how she alleged the airline had treated her. You can read all about what went down here, if you’re in need of some background.

During Azealia’s rant about Aer Lingus, she made multiple comments about the “ugly Irish” air hostess she dealt with, and said she was in no humour to be dealing with “ugly Irish women”. In her lengthy Instagram story, she called Irish women ugly a handful of times, and added that her air hostess was ‘haggard’. After this, she announced that she was barred from using Aer Lingus.

An Aer Lingus spokesperson made a statement in response to the incident:

Aer Lingus can confirm that two guests scheduled to fly on 10:55am flight from London Gatwick to Dublin (EI233) this morning disembarked themselves prior to departure. The guests in question got off the plane safely of their own accord, while all other guests remained on board. As they had luggage in the hold, the flight was delayed while the luggage was sourced. The flight departed Gatwick at 12:07 and landed in Dublin at 13:22. 
Aer Lingus has a strict no-tolerance policy towards disruptive guest behaviour. The safety and security of our guests and crew remains our first priority. 

You’d think that this would be the end of the story, but nah.

Many British and Irish tabloids framed the story as “AZEALIA BANKS CALLS ALL IRISH WOMEN UGLY”, and were probably quite happy with themselves when comments slating Azealia Banks and her own appearance began to roll in. Azealia Banks went back on Instagram to clarify that she meant that the air hostess was ugly, and not all Irish women, but nobody was really interested in hearing it. 

Of course there’s no defending the comments made by Azealia Banks, but you’d expect anybody who read it to, at the very most, think “Wow, Azealia Banks is pretty rude”, before moving on with their lives. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. 

Instead, dozens of Irish people went out of their way to go onto Azealia’s personal Instagram, to send her a DM about how they felt. These messages were not pretty, and it’s unlikely that Azealia’s opinion on Irish people will improve as a result. As Azealia Banks shared all of the angry messages she received to her Instagram story, her point about Irish people has been proven to the world. 

Writing “Yikes… The Irish public school system clearly failed its women”, Azealia Banks uploaded a message she received from a young Irish woman, which read:

I don’t know how to make butter and I’m not a cow but if we’re talking about stereotyping then how about you get back on a plane to Nigeria (if you can afford it) and start picking cotton lol BYE X If you want to be discriminative then I can be discriminative back. 

PastedImage-7802 Azealia Banks / Instagram Azealia Banks / Instagram / Instagram

In another message, a woman named Fiona DMed Azealia Banks to tell her she was “no oil painting herself” and that during her stay in Ireland she “might see a car bomb exploding”, which comes off as quite threatening – especially to someone from another country who is completely unaware of the context and the recent bomb threats in Derry. 

Another individual said Azealia would get “a nice Irish welcome” at her concert, telling her, “I hope you like potato’s.” (sic)

Azealia shared more screenshots to her Instagram story, including this charming message from a woman who threatened to throw human shit at her while she was on stage. 

PastedImage-94238 Azealia Banks / Instagram Azealia Banks / Instagram / Instagram

 

Another person simply wrote, “Are you ready for what Ireland has in store for you tomorrow?” 

After receiving multiple threats that she should expect to have things thrown at her during her concert, Azealia Banks wrote:

We have a no bags/no baggy clothes policy for the show tomorrow night. Everyone will be thoroughly searched before they enter. And police outside of the concert.

Eventually, Azealia wrote: 

I never said all Irish women were ugly. I said the women on the plane were ugly Irish women and I was speaking SPECIFICALLY about their spirits. Irish women are showing their eagerness to spew racism by twisting my words to say I called the whole country ugly. And no… I’m not apologising. Y’all keep showing your ugly hearts and minds, none of them DESERVE my apology. 

This woman made one stupid and very general comment about nobody in particular. She didn’t name the flight attendant that she was complaining about in her Instagram story, and she didn’t target any individual. And here she is, receiving threats of car bombs, being pelted with shit and having potatoes thrown at her, as well as more vague and more threatening messages.

Imagine if Irish people could channel this amount of energy and rage into taking action against the genuinely serious issues in this country, like y’know, the 3,800 homeless children living in Ireland. Instead, we have people sitting at home sending a rapper from New York some thinly (and not-so-thinly) veiled racist messages. 

One Instagram user managed to put Azealia Banks at ease, by informing her that he was a bartender in The Academy, and that she shouldn’t be worried about the security situation. He wrote:

I can tell you, you’re in such safe hands. They have some of the best security in the country. I’ve been threatened by customers many times and I’ve always felt safe with the bodyguards in the venue. I hope you’re not letting the shitstirrers get to your head because you’re better than that gal. Can’t wait to see the show. 

It’s likely that Azealia isn’t the only one feeling a bit apprehensive about tonight’s gig. After seeing her post messages she has received about the threat of violence and potentially witnessing a car bomb explode, her fans probably feel just a little bit concerned ahead of the show. Azealia thanked the young man who messaged her, and said:

Thank you so much! This message is very comforting. I’ve never seen people act like such animals. Throwing potatoes and poop? Terrible excuses for homo-sapiens. They belong in the zoo. This really made me feel better, thanks. It’s been such a rough day. 

After receiving this message, Azealia Banks appeared to be in much better spirits. So much so, that she uploaded a screenshot of her last conversation with Conor McGregor (in which he said, “See you soon” – is he going tonight?) Azealia replied to Conor and said, “Conor they are bullying me :( Help me :(“ 

PastedImage-59581 Azealia Banks / Instagram Azealia Banks / Instagram / Instagram

We have absolutely no doubt in our minds that this is not the last you’ll hear from Azealia Banks in relation to her trip to Dublin. Buckle up.

Daily Edge is on Instagram!

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