Note: This is an Op-Ed Article, and the opinions presented reflect the perspective of the writer alone.
“The shit that I did to motherf**king survive… like I had to go strip,” Cardi B said during an Instagram Live video. “And I drugged n****rs up and I robbed them. That’s what I used to do. Nothing was mother**king handed to me, nothing!”
The Boday Yellow singer, Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, commonly known as “Cardi B” admitted to drugging and raping men while responding to a comment that suggested she did not deserve success. The video, filmed when her career was taking off, resurfaced recently.
In March 2019, Belcalis defended herself, saying, “Whether or not they were poor choices at the time, I did what I had to do to survive. I never claimed to be perfect or come from a perfect world.” Belcalis continues, “I never glorified the things I brought up in that live , I never even put those things in my music because I’m not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it.” After Cardi attempted to defend herself, people were enraged and started a new Twitter handle called “SurvivingCardiB”. Thousands of users have posted and the handle trended multiple times.
Not only is she not being held accountable for her actions, but she also continues thriving in the music industry. In fact, Cardi, on November 7th, 2020, was in conversation with President Biden, performed at the 2021 Grammy awards, and has a net worth of $24 million.
Cardi B’s recent story brings us to an extremely important argument. As long as you are a celebrity, you can get away with anything. Celebrities are representatives of culture and by placing criminals in a position of power, we send a terrible message to the public – money can buy you anything, even injustice.
Thus, we need to make sure that the people represented in media and worthy of being a role model to the people. Cardi B must be held accountable for her actions immediately.
Image Credit: “File:Cardi B VMA 2018 – closeup.png” by Nicole Alexander is licensed under CC BY 3.0
The Roar 