The advent of Web 2.0 has given new meaning to many elements of real life. Amongst those changes is vocabulary and evolution can be seen in words like, “tweet” and “friend.” But earlier definitions don’t die. Everything is contextual. And some of us will learn that the hard way.
Last week, Offset came under fire for saying, “I do not vibe with queers” in a guest verse on YFN Lucci’s “Boss Life.” Upon hearing it, most fans thought that the statement was homophobic and with good reason. The Migos rapper apologized almost immediately with an Instagram post of a screenshot where the word, “queer” is defined as strange or odd. While he wasn’t wrong, the word has long been a pejorative term, used to refer to sexuality, and has since been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community.
Offset apologized but continued to receive flak as the slip up was a bit clumsy. So his fiancé, Cardi B came to his defense via a Periscope broadcast, SPIN reports.
“You’d rather be arguing than educate,” she opened. A lot of Cardi’s argument was that Offset didn’t know the word and that it’s the responsibility of an audience, collectively, to make sure that everyone’s up to date with the evolution of vocabulary. “Nobody taught us that,” she continued.
Cardi said that she’d called Offset and asked him why he used, “queer” that way and that he told her, “I didn’t even know that was a word for gays.” He reportedly hadn’t realized that the word would incite backlash or bring about accusations of homophobia. She, herself, claimed that she had never heard the word and said again, “Why don’t y’all educate people about it? A lot of people are not aware about what’s wrong or right in the LGBT community and that’s the thing… why don’t we do things to educate instead of bashing and trying to label somebody that they not?”
The Bronx rapper discussed the nuances of new words in this “new millennium” and placed an emphasis on educating one another because the new definitions of some words are lost on older groups of people.
If nothing else, this may have reminded public figures that they’ve all got to tune in to change.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CbPFh0LsPCQ