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From Kylie Jenner to Miley Cyrus, everybody wants to be a Black girl that rocks until it’s time to deal with Black girl issues. And today’s culprit is Miley Cyrus. The backstory is that rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted about how White women steal Black women’s videos and get honored for them. While Black girls rarely get recognition. Taylor Swift felt slighted and decided to argue Nicki’s idea. The back and forth continued until Taylor apologized. I was planning on writing about the whole ordeal, but then I remember that Nicki isn’t one to stick to her guns. And she later proved me right. Now lets fast forward to the upcoming New York Times interview with Hannah Montana …
“I didn’t follow it. You know what I always say? Not that this is jealousy, but jealousy does the opposite of what you want it to — that’s a yoga mantra. People forget that the choices that they make and how they treat people in life affect you in a really big way. If you do things with an open heart and you come at things with love, you would be heard and I would respect your statement. But I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it. And it’s not anger like, ‘Guys, I’m frustrated about some things that are a bigger issue.’ You made it about you. Not to sound like a bitch, but that’s like, ‘Eh, I didn’t get my V.M.A.’ If you want to make it about race, there’s a way you could do that. But don’t make it just about yourself. Say: ‘This is the reason why I think it’s important to be nominated. There’s girls everywhere with this body type.’ What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite. I think there’s a way you speak to people with openness and love. You don’t have to start this pop star against pop star war. It became Nicki Minaj and Taylor in a fight, so now the story isn’t even on what you wanted it to be about. Now you’ve just given E! News ‘Catfight! Taylor and Nicki Go at It.’ I know you can make it seem like, Oh I just don’t understand because I’m a White pop star. I know the statistics. I know what’s going on in the world. But to be honest, I don’t think MTV did that on purpose.”
Just like White women to make it about them. It’s so simple to just say ‘No comment’ or ‘I don’t know.’ But of course that didn’t happen. Nicki Minaj’s Twitter rant wasn’t just about her. It was about how the same situation is perceived differently, depending on the race of the person. Miley being naked in her video receives responses like ‘Yasss.’ ‘Look at that Feminism’. ‘Women Rule.’ Rihanna being naked in her video receives responses like ‘Disgusting.’ ‘She’s not a role model.’ ‘How dare she?’ And we don’t have to stop at music videos. Cornrows on Kylie Jenner are the new fashion craze, while cornrows on Ciara are trashy and ghetto. Emma Roberts is the new face of Feminism and Women rights while Amandla Stenberg is just a cyber-bully with left-winged ideas. Miley, just like Taylor, didn’t and still don’t understand the underlying message in Nicki’s rant.
Most Black children grew up being told that, ‘You have to work twice as hard to get half of what they got.’ For those that don’t understand, that means that minorities have to work twice as hard to get half the recognition that their White counterparts get. Jazmine Sullivan will never get the same recognition as Adele. Not because she’s not as talented but because her skin is Godiva chocolate. The point of Nicki Minaj’s Twitter rant was that her video was just as good as everyone else’s but because of the body type and skin tone it was overlooked (even though “Anaconda” isn’t the video to hang your flag on). But Miley doesn’t see that. You see Miley didn’t have a problem being a Black girl caricature, it’s when it was time to deal with Black girl issues that Hannah Montana returned. So sorry Hannah, it wasn’t jealousy that Nicki was spewing but irritation. Being irritated at the fact that she can put as much effort as possible in her project and still will be put to the side to accommodate you and you a like’s mediocrity. So Miley Cyrus do us all a favor, and stick to humping giant dildos on stage and leave the Black girl issues to us. –Pooh Bailey
