Source: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Source: Lorne Thomson / Getty
Ari Lennox is shutting down haters in 2020. The singer who’s known for expressing her opinion on Twitter and Instagram Live took to both platforms to sound off at an internet troll who compared her and singer Teyana Taylor to a Rottweiler. In an emotional video and multiple tweets, the singer asked followers why Black men feel comfortable tearing down Black women.
The series of tweets began on January 1 after a Twitter user, @WinEverUwantIT, posted, “Ari Lennox and Teyana Taylor’s ability to have dangerously high sex appeal while simultaneously looking like Rottweilers will always amaze me.”
The anti-Black tweet led to a debate about self-hatred within the Black community. Some defended the singers’ looks while others supported his freedom of speech or thought the comment wasn’t a big deal. Lennox responded to the tweet, writing, “People hate blackness so bad.”
https://twitter.com/AriLennox/status/1212460546210975744
“Mom and Dads, please love on your beautiful black children. Tell them they’re beautiful constantly. Tell them Black people are beautiful. Tell them black features are beautiful,” she wrote in a second tweet.
https://twitter.com/AriLennox/status/1212461886756622336
https://twitter.com/AriLennox/status/1212464694054674433
Teyana Taylor chimed in, posting, “no lies detected,” agreeing with Lenox’s original tweet.
https://twitter.com/TEYANATAYLOR/status/1212479330196099073
Some followers called out Lennox for overreacting.
https://twitter.com/lamebxycolor/status/1213129544044965888
Lennox then took to Instagram Live to address the internalized racism in the user’s post.
Through tears, the BMO singer expressed that she’s never witnessed other races of men degrade their own women. An emotional Lennox pleaded for Black men to have more compassion for Black women, who remain the pillars of the Black community.
“I’m not with it, how people hate Black people so much,” Lennox expressed on Instagram Live. “How Black people can sit up here and say, ‘It’s not my problem’ or ‘She does look like a Rottweiler,’ that’s fine. And you want to talk about how people are so sensitive, they want to cancel freedom of speech. Why is that your speech? Why are you so comfortable tearing down Black women and no other race? Look around! When are Hispanic women ever compared to dogs? When do they do that? When do they do that to white women? When are white men do that to white women? When are Hispanic men doing that to Hispanic women? They’re not doing it.”
She then addressed followers who sought to belittle her feelings about the attack.
“How come as a Black women, me sticking up for it, I’m Azealia,” she continued, referring Azealia Banks, the New York rapper who’s been known for making anti-Black and controversial outbursts.
Lennox continued in a later video warning followers that haters will be exposed.
“I like to expose people,” she said in a later video. “People need to be exposed for being self-hating little f—s.”
The singer pleaded with fans to be more kind to each other and empathetic to others’ feelings. She reassured fans that while she loves herself, there are some people who’d rather die over such abuse.
“I made this live because I want people to know I really do love myself. I love my nose. I love Black features…It bothers me because you don’t understand while I’m at a place that I may love myself; there’s somebody else who wants to die,” she said.
While some criticized Lennox for overreacting, others supported her, retweeting photos of her in her bountiful glory and sending her affirming messages.
https://twitter.com/ThickLeeyonce/status/1213149167788445697
The criticism isn’t a first for Lennox. Last year, Lennox told Buzzfeed she’d been pressured to change her features from her nose to her natural hair.
“I would never get surgery, and I love my nose,” she said.
She then shared that she wants to use her platform to encourage people to embrace their natural beauty.
“I refuse to change for them,” she said. “Knowing that I can encourage someone else to rock their natural self really empowers me, as well.”
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