New Delhi: Should White people be allowed to sit on the stairs of a historically Black neighbourhood? Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab thinks they should not. According to her, it is not “aesthetically right” for a neighbourhood that was once home to New York’s first free Black communities.
Her “hot take” has united Americans and Pakistanis, who are now calling her out unanimously. Americans see her living in the neighbourhood as gentrification, and Pakistanis think she is trying to be too woke to fit in. The fact that she comes from an elite family in Pakistan is not helping either.
Aftab’s take on the popular internet comedy show SubwayTakes Thursday drew backlash after she joked that White people should be prohibited from sitting on stoops in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood in Brooklyn, saying they were “aesthetically not as good”.
“It looks bad. It’s aesthetically not as good, especially for Bed-Stuy as a neighbourhood… I think it’s rude to the history of the place,” Aftab said while riding the New York City subway with comedian host Kareem Rahma.
Bedford-Stuyvesant is one of Brooklyn’s oldest neighbourhoods, and was home to Weeksville, among the first free Black communities in the United States. Originally a predominantly White area, it became a major Black cultural centre after the Second World War as Black families from the American South and the Caribbean settled there. Known for its historic Victorian brownstones, Bed-Stuy earned the nickname “Little Harlem” during the mid-20th century.
“By 1945, this influx had transformed Bedford Stuyvesant into a community of over 65,000 Blacks. Whites began moving out of the area as it became home to working-class and middle-class Blacks,” said a report on the website Black Past.
Elite, yet not quite?
Aftab was swiftly criticised, not just by the diaspora but by Pakistanis themselves, who accused her of being part of the gentrification and trying too hard to fit in. Asad, a public historian in NYC, called her answer ‘divisive and reductionist’.
“What you don’t know is that she is a critically-acclaimed musician from Pakistan’s elite social classes with a Grammy and more wealth and assets than any white or Black regular in Bed-Stuy (local or transplant). These divisive, reductionist takes come easy to elites for a reason,” he wrote on X.
During the show, Aftab mentioned that she has lived in the area for 12 years. Later in the conversation, she joked that although she is not White, she also avoids sitting on her own stoop in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
“So even you, out of respect as a Brown woman, you’re like, ‘I’m not gonna sit on the stoop because I’m not Black’?” Rahma asked.
Aftab responded with a “yeah”, and the two laughed together.
DropSite news journalist Waqas said it was a way to “co-opt” Black struggles.
“Desis have no right to tell “white people” what to do or not to do. African Americans have that right because of years of slavery. It is a direct conversation between these two groups. Desis can offer solidarity, but can’t claim victimhood, we are not a direct part of that conversation,” he posted on X.
While some view Aftab as elite, others think she is trying too hard.
“These diaspora spawns of elites from 3rd world countries are the closest thing to parasites in human form. They perpetuate misery at home, milk victimhood abroad and then weaponize identity politics to rob other minorities too,” wrote Pakistani X user Zuhaib.
For Pakistani cultural critic Sabahat Zakariya, New York is not a melting pot but “cultural domination by White and Black Americans”.
“But if you are brown, you will keep making faux pas because you never belong to either. New York is not a brown city. There is barely any cultural production by Indians and Pakistanis there. Even black Americans will dunk on her for privilege while being oblivious to their own. In the lap of empire, they are at least culturally privileged,” she wrote. “All this dunking on her proves that you may be the burgerest of burgers back home, but in a new country you will still always be TRYING to fit in.”
New York is not a melting pot. It is cultural domination by White and Black Americans, and the only way to assimilate is to identify with one stream or the other. But if you are brown, you will keep making faux pas because you never belong to either.
New York is not a brown… https://t.co/OKOcpVJBIt
— Sabahat Zakariya (@sabizak) May 24, 2026
‘Annoyed at diasporoids’
Pakistanis also have personal issues with Aftab.
“Her grandfather was a PPP politician. Hope her family doesn’t run a private jail in Pakistan,” wrote X user Faraz.
“I don’t care about what her takes are. I dislike Arooj Aftab because she: 1) butchered Hafeez Hoshiarpuri & Mehdi Hasan Khan’s song(s) 2) won a Grammy for that butchery and then didn’t even mention them in her speech. That’s why no Pakistani remembers her Grammy win,” wrote Hamza, whose bio describes him as ‘Culturally Muslim, religiously Neoliberal’.
Aftab was nominated for Best New Artist and won the Best Global Music Performance award for her song ‘Mohabbat’ at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in April 2022, becoming the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy Award.
The singer’s comment became a full-blown controversy with the conservative American newspaper New York Post calling her “a medium famous singer”.
On Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day, President Arif Alvi honoured Aftab with the Pride of Performance, one of the country’s highest civilian awards for excellence in art and music.
Asad, the NYC historian, summed it up.
“The ideological diversity of the likes on this tweet range from the most far-left cadre to the Wall Street Journal. I don’t think Twitter has ever unified as much as it has on being annoyed at elite diasporoids weaponizing woke rhetoric to divide us.”
I wish y’all could see the ideological diversity of the likes on this tweet. They range from the most far-left cadre to the Wall Street Journal. I don’t think Twitter has ever unified as much as it has on being annoyed at elite diasporoids weaponizing woke rhetoric to divide us. https://t.co/lpa1DnBTEc
— Asad🗽🍎 (@AsadFromNYC) May 22, 2026
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)