As Jhené Aiko sings in her beautiful song WAYS, “There’s no slowing down as the globe spins ‘round and ‘round, you gotta keep going.” That’s exactly what Zayn Malik is trying to do. Some of you may see him as someone who betrayed his four brothers, but I see him as a young man trying to be happy. Zayn just wants to keep going as the globe spins ‘round and ‘round. Sure, he had to drop some people along the way but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate them. If anything, he’s grateful for everything he’s succeeded with them. He just wants to find himself in this great big world we call home, just like all the rest of us. I know there’s still people who use the “normal 22 year-old” line as an excuse to hate Zayn for leaving, but that phrase is completely irrelevant. That was something that was probably written by a 35 year-old male on his desktop that works for the One Direction team and just needed something to make Zayn’s departure, soft, on fans. We all know Zayn has had different interests in music since the x-factor days. He was that member of the group that didn’t really fit in with the rest, not just because he’s—excuse me, was—the only PoC (person of color) in the group but because he had a different vision. He tweeted about his love for Frank Ocean, Drake, Chris Brown (hell, he even made his own hashtag so Chris would follow him back on Twitter) etc. Meanwhile, the others were into Bublé, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Coldplay, that whole rock genre. You can’t blame him if he wanted to go a separate way, he just wasn’t feeling the whole One Direction vibe anymore, and I’m grateful he chose his own happiness over anyone else’s.
As for his split from Naughty Boy and Perrie Edwards, some of ya’ll gotta chill. If you’ve been here long enough (technically only a couple months, but, whatever) you’ll know that Naughty Boy is blamed for Malik’s departure. But, now the whole ‘Zaughty’ flame has been extinguished due to a twitter feud and lots of shading on NB’s part. But, still, that’s no excuse for everyone to hate anyone. No one knows the full story, so, carry on. On the topic of the Zerrie break up, we shouldn’t believe everything that is published in tabloids. Zayn is portrayed to be this bad guy because he broke up with his fiancée of 2 years. Do we really know what happened? I would say no. You can choose to believe what you want but if you start arguing about it on my timeline and have no hard evidence, you’re getting blocked.
I know racism is a ‘controversial’ issue but it has to be addressed. Calling Zayn a terrorist is not okay. Oh, you were just joking about it and everyone laughed? It’s still something you shouldn’t say. Mr. Malik is probably one of the most famous and successful Muslim men in the western world. That’s something that should be praised and recognized not something he should be targeted and terrorized for. I don’t want to give a whole lecture about being a decent human, so, Google it.
That’s it for this edition of Zayn Defense Squad, and remember, stay woke.