Dear Young Thug: Don’t get it twisted. Your sh*t still stinks.

Dec 9, 2016

A video that recently surfaced online shockingly shows Young Thug disrespecting two black women working for Alaska Airlines. After claims that they were attempting to make him miss his flight, he went on a rant calling the two ladies “ants” and referred to their manager as a “peasant.”

–Young Thug calls airline staff ‘peasants’ with ‘nappy’ hair–

After making multiple attempts at a cash offer of $15,000 for them to quit their jobs, the 25-year-old rapper turned up the hatred and had the camera pan in on their hair.

“Their hair nappy as a mother**ker,” he said, while laughing the entire time. And just when you thought it was over, he went for the kill and shamed them for being “African Looking.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1fZs–rKm8

Let me be clear when I say that Mr. Thug, real name Jeffery Lamar Williams, is not a “carefree black boy,” as suggested by the masses who have praised him for seemingly being the face of a more inclusive, gender-bending hip-hop. What he is, is the evolution of “hotep logic” wrapped up in a quintessential “F*ckboy.”

Earlier this year, Mr. Thug received praise for his Mortal combat-esque album cover, Jeffrey, which depicted him in a skirt. This “gender bending” cover was used as the catalyst for making Mr. Thug out to be a leader in an industry which has long tried to remove itself from anything deemed anti-masculine. Article after article argued that the cover would give the green light for men of color to express themselves, through fashion, in a way that they see fit.

There were even comparisons of him made to the likes of Jaden Smith and Andre 3000, knighting him as the next game-changer to push the envelope on gender constructs in a hyper-masculine space. There was only one problem: Young Thug never signed up to be this person and time and time again has proven that he is not and will never be.

In January, Young Thug released a track, “Serious,” which he raps, “Green and red motherf*ckin’ flag / I dress like a prince, not a fag / No, I’m not gay when I hit it though they rate me.”

Let’s get this straight. You, Young thug, who stated that you don’t “believe in gender,” felt the need to defend yourself by using a slur based heavily on sex and gender. This blatant display of homophobia is nothing new in the rap industry; however, for a person who claims to be so steadfast in their gender blindness, he definitely projects hard to not be labeled as such. It’s also interesting that he chose Prince as his inspiration, an icon who blended gender lines, often at the detriment of the LGBTQ community, due to his homophobic stance on many issues.

I totally understand that all people aren’t fit to be allies for communities that they unknowingly or unwantedly get boxed into. However, it’s problematic on many fronts to try and distance yourself from these same communities while borrowing their cultural norms and never having to navigate the same lived experience due to access, money and privilege. Homophobia, Femmephobia and misogyny are all related, which is why it comes as no surprise that a person who so desperately wants to separate himself from the LGBT community also seems to have issues with black women.

After his dragging on Twitter and various media platforms, Young Thug said that his verbal assaults on the airline staff weren’t meant for all black women but for those “two black burnt women.”

What in the “Hotep” hell kind of statement is that?

I liken it to the memes of black women dressed as queens juxtaposed against those who are strippers as if one deserves more love than the other. As if both aren’t true lived experiences of the totality of the black woman. There is also something to be said when a black man with locs goes in on the “nappy” texture of a black woman’s hair. There is some turning of the reflection with Young Thug’s inability to see how black hair textures are shared and how most in white America would classify his hair as being “nappy.”

I am tired of society giving men like this the license to say and do whatever they please because they once “crossed a gender line” or did something so progressive that they should forever be absolved of the problematic people they actually are. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: There is no such thing as being “woke” or “pro-black” while disrespecting black women or having conditions that go against other marginalized black communities.

Young Thug took his internalized homophobia and anti-black rhetoric and turned it into a platform of millions of followers, and the time is now that we call him out on his BS.

So Mr. Thug, I urge you to take a look in the mirror and analyze what it is that you actually see versus the nasty and vile things you say about others during interviews and on social media. You might realize that the slurs and hatred you spew at us is simply you not ready to take a hard look at your own reflection.

George M. Johnson is a journalist and activist based in the Washington, D.C. area. He has written for EBONY.com, TheGrio, JET, Pride.com, Thebody.com, and The Huffington Post on topics of health, race, gender, sex, and education. Follow him on Twitter: @iamgmjohnson.