In the wake of the Twitter "fight" between Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift, the world found itself in a media frenzy again. Yet, just like Swift, the media missed the point. While there are tons of news articles about the twitter battle and the apology, the focus is being driven away from what Minaj was trying to do. Which was to call out the industry. Instead when you Google the incident, everything is about the so called spat and trying to guess who won.
No one won.
That was not the point.
The point Minaj was trying to get across was that far to often people of color are over looked for nominations and awards. (I mean Katy Perry is right, how on earth was BBHMM by Rihanna over looked?).
This isn't just happening in the music industry, it is happening in all industries. This is an issue of white privilege and racism that keeps getting masked as "they just weren't good enough." I'm calling bullshit.
When fighting for equality, you can not brush over the facts. White-washed feminism is still trying to fight for things that I agree with, but all too often they forget to include those who were not born with inherent privilege. While no one can help the fact that they were born a certain skin color and race, there is nothing they can do about it (I'm looking at you Rachel Dolezal). What can be done though is making sure that every single person is being accounted for. Every. Single. One.
I have respect for both Minaj and Swift, they both are strong female artists who are at least trying to make a social impact with their fame. The difference is Minaj is a little more educated on the topic because she lives with it every day. Swift is new to the feminism game, and while I welcome anyone on board, it is a learning process.
Educating yourself on just how un-equal our society is is not something someone always wants to do. I get that it is depressing or can make some people uncomfortable, but until no one has to worry about their child being shot, we need to make a big deal about it.
After all the shootings of innocent black children started happening, my mother came to talk to me about it, and she gave me the best advice on how to handle it all.
- Don't make it about you. It's not, it really isn't.
- Get educated on the issue.
- Spread awareness.
- Use any of your privilege to draw attention to these issues.
- Support everyone.
- When everyone stands together we make an impact.
I applaud Minaj on calling out the industry. I encourage her to keep at it. Minaj has been consistently a good role model (from telling her fans to stay in school to fighting for equality). We need to move away from the image people focus too much on; her creative endeavors (music, videos, style) are up to her. The message is what people should be focusing on.
I sincerely hope that Minaj and Swift continue to fight for feminism, and that Swift will continue to support her fellow musicians while educating herself on intersectionality issues (she already apologized which shows her conviction).
I also hope that this whole debacle creates a forum for discussing these issues because at the end of the day, we need to be aware that #intersectionalitymatters.
