It seems as if Candace Owens can’t help but offend folks. During a recent sit-down with Joe Budden, the conservative talking head continued to spew some of her extreme ideologies about Black culture, Democrats, Ice Spice, Cardi B, and Lizzo’s weight.
While discussing Lizzo, Owens said that she was sick of people cramming the “About Damn Time” singer’s size down her throat, and she has the right to criticize it. She specifically referenced a 2019 NBA game in which Lizzo wore a cut-out dress that revealed her thong-clad backside.
“Why do I have to look at Lizzo in a thong and have somebody tell me that it’s beautiful? OK, why do I have to eat s—t and someone tell me it tastes good,” Owens inquired during her exclusive sit down with Joe Budden.
“Why do you associate big with being unhealthy,” Joe rebutted.
“[Because it] literally is the number one killer in America,” Owens countered.
The former Slaughterhouse rapper turned media mogul went on to explain to Owens that there are plus-sized people who are considered “healthy,” and not “everybody is … petite and beautifully shaped.”
“We would never glorify this,” Owens argued. “Imagine if every day I was tweeting about my anorexia and I was just like skin and bones and I was like ‘I didn’t eat today. I haven’t eaten in three days.’”
Joe immediately said that that would not be healthy, to which the radical far-right pundit replied, “It’s the other end of the same spectrum. Being an anorexic is not healthy, and being the size of Lizzo is not healthy.”
Upon catching wind of Owens’ comments, Lizzo clapped back at the talking head with a comedic voiceover video about how sensitive she is— asking people to consider not saying awful things about her.
“Hey everyone, it’s come to my attention that some of you think I have thick skin — I don’t. I never have. I never will,” said the TikTok voiceover. “Everything you say deeply, deeply hurts me, affects me, keeps me up at night. You have to be nice to me. That’s the deal moving forward, okay?”
She captioned the TikTok video, “I’m like a magnet for negative opinions,” while captioning the same video on Instagram: “I literally just be minding my business please keep my name out ya mouf unless it’s something positive or real.. pls n thank u.”
This is not the only time in the last few weeks that the singer has had to gather someone for saying something sideways. Recently, she barked at a white TikToker who took issue with people speaking African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
Lizzo issued an online PSA to educate people about the complexities of Blackness and the importance of protecting it from those who attempt to criticize the culture despite lacking an understanding of it.
The Grammy winner took to social media to comment on a viral post on TikTok where a white woman is mouthing, “Can you at least speak English, with your stupid a—?” in a video with the overlay caption that says, “Pov: you see a fine man in public but then you listen closely and hear one too many ‘type shiiii’s.”
The video does not indicate if she is speaking to someone directly, a white male or a Black male, or if it is just jumping on the audio lip sync trend on TikTok.
Annoyed by the clip, Lizzo blasted the content creator, saying, “Or even better, why don’t we bring back gatekeeping so that AAVE is reserved for the people who created it and grew up speaking it.”
“So that all these people who are now talking like Black people because they read words on the internet and don’t know the origin and don’t participate in the culture, don’t [you] overuse it and then things like this happened,” she continued.
People on social media were happy that the singer spoke up to address the woman directly.
“Lizzo ate that one fckn thing‼️ Bcz stop using our culture and creations for cosplay or trynna BANISH them when you don’t understand it — no,” a comment read. “Yawl can have your green bean casseroles and we can have OUR creation: AAVE.”
“I agree. Black people should’ve been gatekeeping but instead, we invite everyone to the cookout when we can’t even get an invite to the soirée,” one person wrote on Instagram.
Another wrote, “Not mad at this. [Why] this yt girl at work be saying ‘that’s a good man Savannah’ and has no idea of its origin.”
Whoever that black lady was at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston said exactly what all of us who are voting for President Joe Biden feels. “He’s a good man Savannah.” pic.twitter.com/pFTuGMLaIn
— 2RawTooReal (@2RawTooReal) January 8, 2024
One person on her TikTok said, “they colonized the word ‘woke’ and turned it into something negative they are also trying to rename AAVE into ‘gen-z slang.’”
Lizzo said that this is how words like ‘Gang-lish’ appear in the culture. According to her, it’s a code for “Thug.” She also said, “When police call someone a thug, but it’s really a Black person, which is the new hard ‘R’ n-word.”
The plus-size multi-hyphenate then addressed the term the woman in the video said she had an issue with.
“I know so many people who have said ‘Type s—t,’ Type s—t,’ their entire lives,” she said, adding, “ I’ve heard them talk like that for years before it became trendy on the Internet… maybe if these Internet people get sick of it we can just continue to use our dialect and peace …. type s—t.”
Henry Louis Gates Jr. and a team of researchers from the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, in collaboration with Oxford University Press, are actively working to legitimize AAVE by introducing The Oxford Dictionary of African American English, slated for release in 2025, according to the HuffPost.
Their objective is to demonstrate that AAVE is more than just slang but a valuable linguistic dialect within the culture.
This forthcoming dictionary aims to fill a void in linguistic resources by accurately defining historically Black words and phrases, providing insight into their origins, and ultimately reclaiming them. In this regard, it follows in the footsteps of anthropologist and Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston.
The inaugural volume will feature 1,000 words and phrases, serving as an accessible reference tool that acknowledges the existence and significance of African American English.
Unfortunately for Lizzo, this is sure to increase the number of people using the words and thinking they own them.
