Nicki Minaj is catching a lot of backlash on social media for her recent performance for African dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
And to some, Nicki’s decision to go forward with the performance just means she doesn’t really care too much about black lives.
Radhika Sanghani of the Telegraph writes:
In spite of her previous stance on inequality, she agreed to perform for an African dictator – specifically Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos who has ruled the country for 36 years. Her concert was hosted by Angola’s largest mobile phone company Unitel, which is part owned by, you guessed it, the dos Santos family.
Just this year 15 Angolan activists, including a prominent rapper, were arrested during a book reading where one of the books discussed was about non-violent resistant to repressive regimes.
But Minaj clearly lacked sympathy for fellow rapper Lusty Beinao and his peers, who were charged with the crime of ‘rebellion’, because she didn’t just perform at the concert this weekend – she flaunted her appearance all over social media.
…But now her hypocritical decision to perform for an Angolan dictator calls all of that into question. It starts to unravel her positive work for racial equality, and forces her fans to consider whether she was being genuine with her #BlackLivesMatter support – or whether, as one critic put it, “when those black lives happen to be in Angola, their lives matter less than a paycheck from a dictator”.
If Minaj genuinely cares about #BlackLivesMatter, she needs to start caring about all black lives – whether they’re in America or Angola. And while she’s at it, I suggest she uses this $2 million to hire herself a new agent who refuses to take bookings from dictators.
What are your thoughts?
I wouldn’t say she doesn’t care about black people but she cares about money more. That’s how a lot of celebs are. I mean we got Michael B Jordan out here admitting he doesn’t like to talk about race issues because it could hurt his career. It is what it is.
Real sh-t.
Agreed.
I read about this. Nicki really should have cancelled. I just don’t understand why she would agree to perform for this person.
Nicki has already shown numerous times that she isn’t really loyal to black people. She’s the same woman who called black women nappy headed hoes and just came for black people again on Twitter a few days ago because some people don’t think she’s that great of a rapper. She made it a race thing when it’s a Hip Hop thing. This is why I wasn’t defending her on the whole Miley and Taylor thing. Nicki is only pro black when it benefits her.
I can’t say you’re wrong. I root for Nicki because she’s a black woman in a male dominated industry, but she could be a much better person than she is. If you’re going to be about Black Lives Matter on Twitter, adhere to that when you’re offline as well.
I honestly think Nicki is just trying to drum up controversy to make people forget about what’s going on with her brother. It’s not like her strategy isn’t working.
LMAOOOOOOO they dragged ha!!!!!!
Eh, I get the logic behind this but at the same time, isn’t this typical for artists? They get millions for these kinds of performances. Most ain’t going to turn down the opportunity. Another way to look at it is she would be punishing fans who happen to live in Angola. It’s a lose, lose situation so she probably figured she might as well get money.
*sighs*
LOL!
Not one lie was told. I hope Nicki understands this writer’s POV. But we all need to ask ourselves how fully we are committed to uplifting our own race. It’s easy to call Nicki out but she’s not the only one who isn’t truly committed. Regular people can do better as well, like everyone who is commenting on this blog (myself included).
This can be said about a lot of artists. White ones too because it’s not uncommon for artists to perform for dictators and corrupt political officials.