Beyoncé has come under fire for using an ableist word in a track on her new album Renaissance, after it was leaked two days early last week.
The verse in question occurs on the track “Heated” featuring Drake, in which the 40-year-old sings: “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.” “Spaz” or “spazz” is an abbreviation of the word “spastic,” which is often used in a derogatory context towards people suffering from medical conditions including Cerebral Palsy, autism, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Spastic diplegia, in particular, refers to a type of spastic cerebral palsy that affects motor control in the legs.
Curiously enough, it was the same word that got Lizzo in hot water back in June when she released the single “GRRRLS” from her new album Special — however, the Grammy-award-winning artist was quick to swap out the lyric with an updated version.
Disability advocate and writer Hannah Diviney, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and likewise went viral for calling Lizzo out, penned an op-ed for The Guardian on Monday to express her disappointment with Beyoncé.
“It’s not very often that I don’t know what to say, rendered speechless by ignorance, sadness and a simmering anger born of bone-deep exhaustion,” Diviney wrote. “But that’s how I feel right now.”
“Beyoncé’s commitment to storytelling musically and visually is unparalleled, as is her power to have the world paying attention to the narratives, struggles and nuanced lived experience of being a black woman – a world I can only ever understand as an ally, and have no desire to overshadow.
But that doesn’t excuse her use of ableist language – language that gets used and ignored all too often. Language you can be sure I will never ignore, no matter who it comes from or what the circumstances are. It doesn’t excuse the fact that the teams of people involved in making this album somehow missed all the noise the disabled community made only six weeks ago when Lizzo did the same thing.
It doesn’t explain how millions of people have already heard this album and yet aren’t raising the issue, except to make fun of or degrade the disabled community.”
“I’m so tired. Disabled people deserve better,” she concluded her piece. “I don’t want to have this conversation again.”
In a statement to Variety, Beyoncé’s team confirmed that they’re taking the backlash seriously. “The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” the statement read.
It’s unclear what the word will be replaced with or what the lyric will be changed to, but we can probably expect an updated track shortly, and hopefully other recording artists will actually take note, this time.
