MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross and her panel cringed through a segment on Awkwafina’s recent apology-adjacent statement about her use of what Cross called a “blaccent.”

The film and television star has been taking intense criticism over a lengthy statement she delivered regarding her longtime use of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) — itself a source of longstanding criticism:

pic.twitter.com/pxSLXZD2J0

— nora (@awkwafina) February 5, 2022

Awkwafina followed up her statement with a message announcing her “retirement” from Twitter:

To Clarify: I am retiring from the ingrown toenail that is Twitter. Not retiring from anything else, even if I wanted to, and I didn’t drunkenly hit someone with a shoehorn and now escaping as a fugitive. Also am avail on all other socials that don’t tell you to kill yourself!

— nora (@awkwafina) February 5, 2022

On Saturday morning’s edition of The Cross Connection, Ms. Cross was joined by MSNBC contributor Dr. Jason Johnson, The Undefeated’s Kelly Carter, and RUN AAPI Executive Director Linh Nguyen to discuss the issue.

A clip of Awkwafina from Crazy Rich Asians drew cringes, but a nuanced dissection of the non-apology, code-switching, and the underlying criticism ensued:

MS. CROSS: OK, Linh, I want to get to you on this because you are uniquely positioned to talk about this because you’ve been away for so long. You had a baby girl. And I want you when you answer this question, we’re going to put up some pictures of your beautiful little baby’s face. So talk about why you’re uniquely positioned to talk about this as you answer the question. Your talk or your thoughts on Awkwafina and her quote unquote blaccent.

MS. NGUYEN: … I think we’ve just got to be honest in this moment, and I just I wish y’all would just, that if Awkwafina just said this, that one, when she first got into this industry, she got so much validation from non-Black people. And that was white people in the industry, in entertainment, parts of the Asian-American community who thought this was funny. Who thought it was cute and she made millions off of this. You know, until the moment when she started getting called out for this repeatedly, was the moment when she was forced to realize that it was wrong. Right?

You can’t write an apology that is pages long and not even actually offer an apology. You “like” the tweet replies that were written by non-Black people, by white people telling her there’s nothing to apologize for. You know, and then you dip, you leave Twitter? You cancel your account, you know, so it’s it’s just you can’t you can’t play into that and then also play on this like P.O.C. solidarity and throwing the, you know, generalized Asian-American involvement into this in our identity into this. You know what, I really think ownership from Awkwafina just would have gone a very, very long way because I think what’s so sad about this is that I really do think she is funny and she is talented just as a result. You know, I like to figure out my daughter. Yeah. This is something that my, you know, my daughter, who is going to be proud of both her black and Asian heritage. You know, this is something that she’s going to question herself within her own identity every single day. You know, we just got to do better. We need to have better than Awkwafina. I just got tosay.

MS. CROSS: Yeah. And it’s, you know, we shouldn’t be weaponizing. You know, what you see on your screen is the rising majority of this country. I don’t like weaponizing communities of color against each other like we all need to move in lockstep.

… Kelly quickly. What are your thoughts on this?

MS. CARTER: I think that she she needs to own, you know, kind of what has been happening, especially because she’s been very vocal about not taking certain roles that depict Asians in a stereotypical offensive way, specifically with regards to using an accent that has been made but in American cinema for so many years. And then you employ an accent to essentially make fun of another community. I think that she needed to be a little bit more direct and what she was talking about.

MS. CROSS: Yeah.

MR. JOHNSON: This ain’t that complicated. Fisher Stevens back when we were kids who used to play Indian-Americans. You know, The Simpsons has changed the voice for APU. Big Mouth has changed the voice for the black hair. Just don’t do it. It ain’t complicated. You say you’re sorry. You move on. I enjoyed Nora from Queens.

In fact, she might have cleaned it up a bit if she had actually had black characters on door from queens and could have claimed, Hey, I grew up around this blah blah blah. But at the end of the day, I am a relatively forgiving person. I don’t think she did this viciously, but you say you’re sorry, you move on and hopefully she comes back to Twitter and is in Shang Chi II.

MS. CROSS: Yeah. Yes. Well, I mean, I think, you know, you speak authentically, and if you’re an authentic way you speak, then that’s how you talk. This is why we don’t code switch on this show. Why should we? Everybody’s out there trying to sound like me? What do I want to talk differently to sound like other people do for? So anyway.

Watch above via MSNBC.

The post WATCH: MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross and Guests Cringe at Awkwafina’s ‘Blaccent’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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