Tags: Xenophobia
In rapper Azealia Banks’ most recent unprompted twitter diatribe she targeted previous boy-bander and current beloved desi munda Zayn Malik, calling him, among other things, a p*ki, a sand n***a, and a fa***t. The tweets are included below, trigger warning for wildly bigoted and uncreative slurs.
She also uploaded a Periscope entitled “Sand N***a” which, according to reports was unwatchable. The tweets above are not linked because we don’t want to give Banks further impressions on them and in case she deletes them (though she seems pretty proud of them). At one point Banks blasted the 14 year-old actress Skai Jackson for pointing out Banks’ ridiculousness.
South Asian women on Twitter, seeing the tweet storm brewing with Banks, began to post in support of Malik. Soon the hashtag #curryscentedbitch, referencing one of Banks most outlandish pejoratives, began being used to voice support against xenophobia.
YouTube star JusReign also began responding to Banks’ comments, at first roasting her over her bizarre suggestion that calling someone “Punjab” could be insulting.
"imma start calling u 5 rivers now u dirty bitch" – @AZEALIABANKS
 — @jusreign
Within hours South Asian users, mostly women, were using the hashtag along with selfies of themselves in South Asian traditional clothes to make anti-xenophobic statements. JusReign helped the response along by retweeting the pictures and stating over and over again his support of the brown women using the hashtag, even responding to detracting male users.
Wass good #curryscentedbitchpic.twitter.com/jmpqYfq8zx
 — @biebersarcher
CurryScentedBitch at ya service , anyone want a semi round roti??pic.twitter.com/ShUKTRsrIH
 — @SanaBanana3
loving this hashtag #CurryScentedBitch all these desi queens GLOin up twitter timelines YES
 — @jusreign
with love, your fav #curryscentedbitchpic.twitter.com/CYgQGHR6o1
 — @revabhatt
It's your favourite #curryscentedbitch and her #curryscentedbitchespic.twitter.com/z8Z9sFXNdr
 — @fruityimaan
Despite the outpouring of tweets, selfies and support for Malik, there remains a lack of male voices in this conversation. Annoyingly it seems as though South Asian men are enjoying the selfies but remaining silent in the discussion around xenophobia.
