Awkwafina took to Twitter to explain her controversial use of a “blaccent” Saturday. Then she quit the social network.
The 33-year-old actor and rapper tweeted that “to mock, belittle, or to be unkind in any way possible at the expense of others is: Simply. Not. My. Nature. It never has, and it never was.”
Awkwafina, who was born Nora Lum, has faced consistent criticism over her use of African-American vernacular English (AAVE) in her music and film performances, especially in Crazy Rich Asians in the role of Goh Peik Lin.
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She promised to “always listen.”
“As a non-Black POC, I stand by the fact that I will always listen and work tirelessly to understand the history and context of AAVE, what is deemed appropriate or backwards toward the progress of ANY and EVERY marginalized group,” she wrote.
Explaining where her choice of voice originated from, Awkwafina wrote, “My immigrant background allowed me to carve an American identity off the movies and tv shows I watched, the children I went to public school with, and my undying love for hip hop.” She was born on Long Island and raised in Queens.
“I think as a group, Asian Americans are still trying to figure out what that journey means for them—what is correct and where they don’t belong,” she wrote, adding that she is “still learning and doing that personal work.”
The statement is a more direct response to the criticism than she has given in the past. In September, while being interviewed on the promotional tour for Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, she said she was “open to the conversation” about whether she misused Black slang. In a 2017 interview, she said, “I refuse to do accents.”
She followed up her lengthy statement with a pithier one about ditching Twitter: “Well, I’ll see you in a few years, Twitter—per my therapist... To Clarify: I am retiring from the ingrown toenail that is Twitter.” She said she would be “avail on all other socials that don’t tell you to kill yourself!”
