For using the word “spaz” in the song “Grrls” off of her most recent album, “Special,” Lizzo apologised in June.
Many members of the disability community see the term as derogatory. It is a shorthand for spastic, and most often applies to cerebral palsy (CP) that is characterised by hypertonic muscular tone.
According to Urban Dictionary, the term “spaz” is used to make fun of someone’s uncontrolled bodily movements and means someone who is “irrationally agitated or jumpy.”
However, the phrase is sometimes used to refer to “going crazy” in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is probably how Lizzo meant it to be understood.
In part, the singer’s social media comment on the subject said, “As an obese Black woman in America, I’ve had numerous harsh words used against me so I understand the power words can have (whether purposefully or in my case, accidentally).”
“I’m happy to announce that the lyrics of ‘Grrrls’ have changed in a new version.”
Two months later, Beyoncé used the word in the song “Heated” from her album “Renaissance,” which drew similar criticism.
As originally reported by Insider’s Ayomikun Adekaiyero, Beyoncé’s management said in a statement that the lyrics will be modified.
Both singers acted quickly, which was praised by many handicap activists. Black disability campaigners, however, claim that the discourse goes beyond a few song lines.
For other handicapped Black activists, the dialogues Lizzo and Beyoncé created confirmed the bigotry they had to deal with.
Many of their white classmates, according to activists with impairments, are hesitant to acknowledge that the discourse shouldn’t be about them. Insider was informed by them.
The debate also made clear that, despite times when their views need to be magnified the most, the media often takes a back seat to Black handicapped voices in stories on disability, individuals with impairments told Insider.
Andrea Kortenhoven, a Black linguist and freelance writer who has a handicap but doesn’t consider herself a disability advocate, told Insider that there are many disabled Black individuals, and their worries go beyond the vocabulary used in the song.
When do we regard context and when do we respect a speech community’s norms, she added, and this is where she believes the critics and artists struggle.
Kortenhoven said, “I believe there’s a type of graciousness that’s required in the debate,” even if certain conventions do need to be questioned.
White handicapped persons should speak out more, urge campaigners.
Black crippled and abled communities have been split over the usage of the word “spaz,” according to Ola Ojewumi, a Black and disability advocate and the creator of Project Ascend, which offers grants and scholarships to underprivileged youngsters.
In the Black community, ableism is still a problem, according to Ojewumi, who said that just because the term “spaz” has a different meaning in AAVE doesn’t mean that it isn’t still ableist. But I believe Black folks should be having those talks.
Ojewumi told Insider that she often witnesses white individuals with disabilities making such comparisons, which obscures the particular difficulties that Black and other handicapped people of colour confront.
There’s a widespread misconception that “Oh, being handicapped is exactly like being Black,” she remarked. Ojewumi said that Black handicapped people are the ones who should be speaking about disability problems pertaining to the Black community and its language since they face both ableism and racism.
Pass the microphone and stop speaking for the whole community, Ojewumi added, “Stop equating ableist slurs to the N-word because Black handicapped people get called ableist slurs and the N-word.”
According to Ojewumi, handicapped individuals have built their reputations “on calling out Black notable artists” without giving their Black disabled colleagues the chance to communicate with the media.
Morgan Davis, a Black disability advocate and former intern at Respect Ability, a non-profit that battles stigmas surrounding disability in the media and beyond, said: “I just see immediately when a Black woman expresses her opinion on social media, it seems to be immediately countered with a white voice.”
Ojewumi noted that Beyoncé offered chances to individuals like handicapped trans model Aaron Rose Phillip and disabled Latina model Jillian Mercado early in their careers in a Twitter conversation on the subject of the slur.
The bigger problem, according to her, is who is being called out for being insulting and if a disproportionate number of privileged individuals are doing it while not holding white people to the same standard.
Black linguists claim that the situation is complex.
According to Kelly Wright, a Black linguist at Virginia Tech University, the word “spasmodic,” which denotes erratic movement, is where the phrase originated. It is neither good nor harmful at its heart.
Scientists who are observing bacteria in a Petri dish describe their irregular movements as spasmodic, she added. It is spasmodic rather than undulating or oscillating.
However, the meaning of the term nowadays depends on your culture, your level of competence, and where you reside. She said that’s how language functions and changes.
Wright said that she believes Lizzo and Beyoncé’s lyric alterations to be displays of compassion.
They are engaging in long-standing traditions of ethics and civic duty when it comes to language usage, she added, not merely being politically correct or appeasing their fan base. “This seemed to be linguistic justice to me.”
Kortenhoven thinks that the discourse will focus more on awareness in the long run. I believe that as critics and listeners, we must go cautiously and consider if the tale involves more than just the use of a derogatory term. “The goal shouldn’t be to shame, but rather to promote progress.”