Okay we can all have a good laugh and cheer at what went down tonight but in all seriousness what she was doing was calling out a white woman on her horribly patronizing, racist behavior. A white woman tried to silence and belittle a Black woman’s pain because she didn’t like how it was presented and proceeded to dismiss it because she was too angry. Miley condescended to her, telling a black woman how best to deal with something that she as a white woman will never have to deal with. And Nicki clapped back. On national television. In front of a live audience, in front of the world, on air.
If you think the media and its industries aren’t going to punish her for it then I need you to pay real close attention to her the next coming months, because you can bet she won’t have as many appearances or invitations, you can bet she will get even less recognition and even more criticism, you can bet most mentions of her will associate her with the Angry Black Woman stereotype without ever addressing why she was angry or recognizing that her anger was justified. They are going to make Nicki out to be the ultimate bad guy when the reality is she was defending herself-and by proxy, Black women in entertainer everywhere-against some serious displays of ignorance and racism. But you watch. Watch what’s going to happen to Nicki after this.
The clap back was hilarious, yes, but there is a reason Black people are celebrating it; because Nicki showed some serious courage. Black people, Black women especially, are expected to shoulder any and all abuse silently. She refused. At the end of the day, to these people, she is just a Black woman who is supposed to shut up and take whatever bullshit gets thrown at her. She isn’t supposed to defend herself, especially not if it means hurting white women’s feelings. Protect Nicki Minaj at all fucking costs. Support her at all costs, because she’s going to come under serious fire.
nicki minaj
what you say: nicki minaj is untalented and a whore
what i hear: i’m boring and misogynistic
Some thoughts…
StandardAll taylorswift did today was let her white privilege and white feminism show to the masses. Systematic oppression of black people, especially black women, is why Nicki will never be a cultural phenomenon in pop culture like Miley or Taylor because they are starting from two different levels. Nicki is starting 17 steps behind Miley (who has an industry parent), and 17 steps behind Taylor – who is America’s sweetheart just by being white and traditionally pretty – because she is a black woman.
Therefore, when Nicki does something in the industry, especially in the hip hop industry, she has to work twice as long, and twice as hard, to get half of what white artists are literally handed without trying. And even then, her allocades come with the * of “black artist”, and not just “artist”. So not only does Nicki have to survive in the entertainment as a woman, which is hard enough, she has to survive in this industry as a black woman. Black women are the literal bottom of the barrel in society due to the systematic oppression of gender and race.
So when Nicki is upset that her video, which broke records, and became a hit by media standards, doesn’t receive a nomination, as trivial as the VMAs may happen to be, she has every right as a hard working black woman to be upset that white women, doing the same thing, are getting recognition for their work.
More often than not, those women, are copying/imitating things black women have been CONDEMMED for in the past. For instance: Miley twerks and it’s a new cultural phenomenon. A black woman has been twerking since God created Earth and being told that what we are doing is degrading/too sexual/too exotic/too black/too anything but right.
Just like black women have bigger butts, lips, or finding new ways to do our hair (cornrows/weaves etc), we get stomped on for these features or techniques that get deemed ugly or ghetto, but the minute a white woman begins to do it, it’s “edgy” and new.
So what I’m not going to stand by and let happen is more white people sit around and say, “Nicki didn’t deserve an award anyway bc a, b, c….” When Nicki likely WOULDN’T be nominated at all because those in power (usually white people), find any black person in a position of power/creativity/uniqueness , as a threat to the way they see the power balance of the world, and will consciously or unconsciously condemn the black person for that, and refuse to give praise or awards or whatever when it’s due.
Additionally, Taylor telling Nicki to come on stage with her if she wins is her shrugging off this systematic racism that benefits HER, and maintaining her position of power as a white person, and instead showing pity toward an oppressed person. It’s truly embarrassing.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
But this is the “beef” between Nicki and Taylor that people have been talking about.
I guess Nicki has had enough of the shenanigans and snubs that these award shows throw towards black, female artists, and as is typical of white feminism, Taylor Swift came in to stop the girl-on-girl hate!
I’m here for Nicki and every one of the tweets/retweets she’s made this evening
Im so proud of eminent black women in the industry standing up and defending their role while white women sub due them and take them as trivialized occurrences
