In Pursuit of True Freedom
By Jacob Dwyer
Another one bites the dust.
On July 25, DaBaby, whose verse on Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” now sits at number 3 on the U.S. Billboard 100, stood in front of thousands of concertgoers at Rolling Loud and made a ‘call to action’. He asked those in the audience to raise up their cell phone flashlights if they “didn’t show up with HIV/AIDS,” if, "Ladies, if your p***y smell like water, put your cellphone lighter up.. [and] Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d**k in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up.” The clip quickly went viral, and social media began to react. That same night, he went live on Instagram to defend himself: “... my gay fans, they take of themselves, they ain’t no nasty gay n****s, they ain’t no junkees.”
The condemnations came in from multiple celebrities; his clothing label boohooMAN, which cancelled his contract, and later Lollapalooza, who removed him from their line-up. Two days later, DaBaby issued an apology for the “AIDS/HIV” comments, but told “the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. Y’all business is y’all business.” The next day, DaBaby released a new song, “Giving What It’s Supposed to Give,” (a phrase popularized by Black Queers), which, among another incorrect portrayal of AIDS, ended with the following:
“My apologies for being me, the same way you want the freedom to be you.”
DaBaby’s message at the end of the song is one that has rung louder and louder in our ongoing culture wars: You want to be you, just let me be me. Now, for many years this sentiment has been the call of marginalized peoples as they push for the right to be themselves. But it also has been the excuse raised by those in privilege to excuse their behavior. Which raises the question: What are the limits of “freedom to be you”?
As we strive toward “true diversity”, where we not only recognize our individual differences but truly value them, there is no room for unrecognized privilege. If we truly strive to break down these systems of oppression - whiteness, classism, the patriarchy - we must all recognize our roles in them and come together to combat them. If we only fight against the surface-level discrimination that affects us and not address our deeper, inherent privileges, these oppressive structures win. DaBaby does not think he has done anything wrong, and wants to claim freedom to be himself, because he does not recognize the privilege he has.
When I was in college, I didn’t recognize my own white privilege. I made a joke without realizing that what I was saying was incredibly sensitive toward the black community. My friends held me accountable. They pulled me aside, asked why I had said that, and helped me understand how what I had said held a deeper meaning, pain, and history that my privilege protected me from and prevented me from truly understanding. Having to admit I was wrong was uncomfortable; realizing I was wrong was necessary. Doing so led me down a path of constant self-reflection, examining my lived experiences and how they shaped my worldview, in order to begin breaking down the racist paradigms ingrained in my psyche. Through this process, I began to notice racism in my everyday life. Then, I was able to share what I learned and hold others accountable.
So far people have mainly called out from the comfort of social media accounts, which often only serves to entrench people in their discriminatory views (for example see Dave Chapelle). This is where DaBaby actually gets it right - You can’t “Fight hate with hate.” What I want to see here is accountability. Accountability needs for those around DaBaby to be courageous and create dialogue that shows how the ‘freedom’ they seek to perpetuate homophobia and queerphobia, borne of deeper inherent privilege as heteronormal men, only hurts us all. Questlove, in decrying DaBaby’s comments, quotes from Huey Newton by saying, “we as a people should NEVER go so low in life (with what we been through) that we start oppressing/terrorizing the next man in the way we been terrorized for centuries.” Questlove, as a black heteronormal cis-man, takes the conversation toward accountability one step further, but, with rapper T.I. in support and Boosie Badazz’s homophobic threats this week, it’s obvious there’s still far to go.
Just as we need the white community to come together to overcome racism so also we need all in the heteronormal community to come together to overcome gender and sex based phobias. When racism, sexism, heterosexism intersect, things get so much more complex, as DaBaby and his circle of supporters have shown us. But it doesn’t mean that you and I can’t start engaging those in our own communities. By better understanding our privileges, sharing our stories, listening to others, and engaging in uncomfortable conversations, we can impact our communities for the better. By holding people accountable to their actions while also holding on to their humanity, we can build a more just world, and hopefully one where even DaBaby can learn from his wrongs.