Rapper Cardi B found herself embroiled in a heated confrontation with a social media personality this week after she brought up her social class, upbringing and the color of her skin. A controversy soon erupted over coloring and questions of who would win from which audience influence.
Of course, Cardi B isn’t one to back down from a fight, and it wasn’t even the first spat this year involving a high-profile rapper. But the argument is notable for the difficult issues it raised about colorism—how prejudice can vary based on the color of one’s skin, and how it can lead to stereotyping and differential policing of behavior.
See what we know about the charged exchange.
What happened?
In a TikTok video posted Wednesday, social media personality Raymonte Cole lamented being labeled too “ghetto” to be marketable, while someone like Cardi B is still able to claim social status and brand deals .
“What bothers me as a black person, you say I’m ghetto,” Mr Cole said in the video, which he has since removed from his TikTok account. But Cardi B, he said, “is very, very ghetto. He’s a lot more ghetto than me.”
The rapper hit back at X on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s crazy because when I became famous people said I was ghetto” she wrote.
“To this day, no matter what I’ve accomplished, I’m still called a stripper because I’m from the ghetto,” he continued. “People misinterpret me because apparently I’m STRONG AND GHETTO.”
Did it get personal?
In his original video, Mr Cole, who is known online simply as Raymonte, invoked colourism, claiming that Cardi B was seen as more “marketable” because she has lighter skin and is not subject to the same prejudices as darker-skinned people. similar upbringing.
Drawing a comparison between himself and Cardi B, Mr Cole said the rapper “doesn’t strike me as a visible black woman”. “This is not a shadow, this is literally an event,” he said, “and we’re talking about coloring and all that stuff.”
The two exchanged remarks in offensive messages on Wednesday. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Cole reiterated that while he meant no offense to Cardi, he stood by his comment. “Girl why do you get so angry at the comparison?” wrote to X. “I say you’re successful and you’ve reached heights that ghetto Black people visibly struggle to reach.”
Cardi B, whose reps did not respond to requests for comment, responded by saying that getting to her current level of success required a lot of code-switching — changing the way she spoke and presented herself to suit her audience.
“I had to change the way I speak, the way I act and the way I respond and how I present myself” she wrote. “You ignore all this and play the colored card.”
How is Essence Magazine involved?
The online discussion about the barriers and stereotypes faced by black media personalities was a response to an article published on the Essence website who reviewed a recent birthday trip took on other black influencers to say that brands have been overlooking black influencers for years.
However, Mr Cole felt it was hypocritical that the publication would use his birthday trip as an example of misrepresentation in the media when he had been treated similarly.
“Omg essence thank you for the article but this is kind of hypocritical.” wrote to X on Tuesday. “You all have invited many other influencers to events ever me.”
Mr. Cole is a 24-year-old social media personality from Minneapolis who has over two million followers on Tik Tok and 345,000 followers on Instagram. His posts mostly include photos of different looks and styles or videos of him approaching random people on the street.
In the interview, Mr. Cole sought to clarify his earlier remarks on TikTok. “Anyone can become a ghetto,” he said. “It’s only bad when it’s with darker-skinned black people or people who are visibly black.”
Mr Cole’s career as an influencer began in earnest after his brother’s death in 2021. He said one of the first TikTok videos, which showed a memorial service for his brother held at their home, really resonated with users.
“It was a very happy exit for me,” he said of the platform.