Beyoncé has removed an offensive term for disabled people from a song on her new album, Renaissance, just weeks after rapper Lizo also changed the lyrics to remove the same word.
“A word not used in an intentionally harmful way will be replaced,” a spokeswoman for Beyoncé wrote in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday.
The song Heated, which was co-written with Canadian rapper Drake, among several others, uses the word “spaz,” which is considered a derogatory reference to the medical term spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy.
Lizzo removed the word from one of his songs, Grrrls, in June after disability advocates complained about the lyrics. Lizzo said in a statement that she never meant to promote derogatory language.
Disability advocate Hannah Divini, who pointed to Lizzo’s lyrics and pushed for the change, wrote on Twitter that hearing the word used by Beyoncé “felt like a slap in the face to me, the disability community, and the progress we’ve attempted to achieve with Lizzo’.
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