Azealia Banks Twitter: 'Broke With Expensive Taste' Rapper Calls for Reparations from Banks, Companies for African Americans
The topic of reparations for slavery in the United States has been a hotly debated issue for decades, with a number of influential members of the African American community calling for payment to be made by both the United States government and private corporations for the profits made either directly or indirectly from slavery.
Over the years, these activists have pointed to such examples as the reparations paid by the United States government to Japanese citizens held in internment camps during World War II, as well as reparations paid by the German government to survivors of the Holocaust. A June 2014 article in The Atlantic made a case for reparations.
Now, adding herself to the list of those seeking reparations is hip-hop artist Azealia Banks.
"ITS MY MONEY, AND I WANT IT NOWWWWW!!!!!!" Banks said after tweeting links about how other groups have received reparations.
She then claimed that banks and companies such as JP Morgan, Chase, Aetna, New York Life Insurance and more owe the black community "major bucks."
"Jews and Native Americans all got reparations because they organized. Please don't let my 'beef' with hip-hop distract from what we need...," she said in one tweet.
"To be focusing on," she continued. "We are owed MAJOR F***ING BUCKS kids, MAJOR BUCKS."
Banks, it seems, wants to make it perfectly clear just how passionate she is about the topic. In another tweet, Banks said she would give up her music career for an opportunity at fighting for reparations.
While initially Banks' statements consisted simply of impassioned rhetoric, her words turned violent when referencing the DeWolf family, the subject of a documentary cataloging the families in history who benefited from slave trading going back to the 18th Century, according to the New York Daily News.
Banks tweeted, "I wonder where the descendants of the 'DeWolf' family are today. They should all have their houses burned and their finances seized."
No word yet from representation for Banks on her statements.
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