Dear Policers, If You're Going to Bully Mulatto, Bully Other Entertainers Too

It was recently shared by the "Bitch from Da Souf" Rapper, Mulatto, that she is no longer using her inflammatory stage name. Now, she'll go by "Big Latto" or simply "Latto." This name change is due to the rapper facing backlash from using such a derogatory name as a pseudonym. Similar to how African Americans reclaimed and revised the word N-word to a slang word, Mulatto, a woman of Black and White ancestry, reclaimed the slur to take back the power that racists used to disenfranchise mixed-race people. She has said so in several interviews.

Yet, the trolls and naysayers that frequent Twitter and other social media platforms bullied her into changing her stage name, stating, "'Mulatto' is such an outdated and such a derogatory word. I'm literally so embarrassed for the rapper who has that name and thinks it's cute." However, there are several social media users that agree it's no worse than the N-word rappers pass around in their songs like verbal candy.

All in all, how can you bully a mixed-race woman for reclaiming a derogatory term, but not Black people who do? It's a fruitless battle when it's so riddled with double standards. Perhaps the fight is against Big Latto initially taking the word "Mulatto" and not changing it to something similar; much like Black people did with the N-word. Now, that she has done so, with "Latto" being derived from "Mulatto," perhaps the ferocious thumbs of the Twitter trolls will be halted. Yet, the main issue should not be with Big Latto initially using that derogatory term. Arguably, it should be that our society might be appeased by merely "tweaking" the word. There is power in words. Slurs don't do anyone any good...but if society insists on using them, there should be no unequal policing on which slurs are "okay" or not. However, please note this statement is true only when it is used by a person whose parentage is historically belittled by the term.

The major message is that there shouldn't be a double standard for Black and mixed-race entertainers using slurs used against their respective races. If Big Latto can't reclaim a derogatory term, nor should Black entertainers.