Elon Musk’s quest to make Twitter the land of free speech reportedly saw a surge in the use of racial slurs following his acquisition of the social media platform in October for a staggering $44 billion. Several celebrities have expressed their grievances on the issue, and now Chuck D is calling on the billionaire investor to ban all accounts using the N-word and any variation of it in light of Kanye West’s recent removal, but not everyone is on board.
The Public Enemy frontman took to his Twitter account on Friday, Dec. 2, where he called out Musk directly, suggesting that “the next thing Twitter should do is ban the N word the N**ga & ni**er by anyone that uses it here. Then we know things are pointing in an equalized direction.”
Although he did not mention West by name, the 62-year-old’s remarks were seemingly a reference to the “Donda” emcee who was, yet again, kicked off the platform after posting an ambiguous image of a swastika inside the Star of David on the same day he made a bizarre appearance on Alex Jones’s “Infowars” show and praised Hitler and Nazis.
The former emcee continued, “Then you can convince Zuck to do the same at IG FB get it outta here suspend em. It’s as bad as that symbol.” He added in another posting, arguing, “It ain’t like kicking somebody’s tail in a fight. It’s all words and images here .. keyboard sht …”
He continued, “So I’m not talking about anywhere else except social media right now because it can be done .. there gonna be a lotta people backbroke over their ‘pet’ getting smashed on here..”
Some critics appeared to agree with the veteran musician, who rose to fame in the ’80s alongside rapper Flavor Flav, thanks to his politically and socially conscious focused music, including one user who wrote, “The word and all its variants serve no positive purpose.”
Another person echoed those views, writing, “I don’t understand why we won’t let that 1 word go.” That person added, “We change slang words constantly and mostly never go back to using them but we just can’t let go of calling each other n**ga. We can and we will.”
“I stand with you 100%. I retired the word over 15 years ago. The saddest and most ridiculous thing are Black Folk giving excuses as to why we can’t do it. I’m at the point now I hate hearing Black folk use it more than yt people.”
However, not everyone saw it that way. Some felt it would contradict Musk’s mission when he took over for former CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, writing, “Wouldn’t that be violating his own mission statement? While I agree with your premise ( not the action) I think this is a personal responsibility thing,” wrote a fourth.
“That wouldn’t be free speech to ban a word now would it,” added another.
