Minaj, Nicki(Nick Minaj). “When the “other” girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination.”. 21 July 2015, 12:23 PM. Tweet.
The controversy I chose is the double standards between women of color and white women in the media. The source I decided to use as an example for this controversy is the “feud” between rapper Nicki Minaj and singer Taylor Swift on Twitter. The feud is about Nicki Minaj’s tweets on her stating that she released a groundbreaking video but didn’t get nominated for MTV video of the year award. Nicki Minaj points out the racism in the media, but is seen as the “angry black woman” when most people thought she was attacking Taylor Swift even though Minaj was not talking about her but the media in general. This Twitter feud is related to my controversy, because it is the perfect example how there is white privilege and double standards regarding women in the media.
Nicki Minaj has always stood for women, especially women of color. She encourages women to stay in school and become independent. Nicki Minaj was actually courageous enough to speak about the issue, in a very popular social website, of racism in the music industry knowing she will get backlash from the media as “the angry black woman” stereotype. Nicki Minaj has been in the rapping industry for years now and has the experience enough to know it’s a man’s game. Although, she has said before “I do not see myself as a female rapper anymore. I see myself as a rapper”. She is making a stance for women, especially women of color, in rap and media.
Nicki Minaj started her tweets by expressing how black women don’t get recognized in the media when she didn’t get nominated for her “Anaconda” music video but Taylor Swift got nominated even though Minaj’s video also broke records. She shows she is tired of the same injustice when she tweets “I’m not always confident. Just tired. Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it”. Minaj is speaking up about how women of color, in this case black women, are robbed of the influences they provide in the media. She is not attacking Taylor Swift but attacking the media when she tweets “Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn’t say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u speack on this”.Minaj knows the influence Swift has on the media and pop culture which is why she asks her to speak on the double standard issue. Nicki Minaj is a hip hop icon and knows the dark side of the media which makes her argument with Taylor Swift a great source for the double standard controversy.
Nikki Minaj is very bold when it comes to confronting people especially social media. Minaj is very flamboyant and will speak her mind without anybody’s consent. Although she had a point, I think there was a better way to approach this matter. I don’t think “subtweeting” is the way to solve a problem about racial injustice. There are also famous African American women that do get recognized such as Rihanna, Whitney Houston, and Beyonce. But I do think there are double standards.
I agree with Kamran that “subtweeting” is not a way to solve a problem of racial injustice, clearly Nikki Minaj knew that her tweet was going to raise questions and probably cause an issue so why not make a video or confront the MTV staff regarding racial injustice?. However I do believe Nikki should of been nominated, regardless of her race and video profanity. She has a lot of fans and clearly a lot of views on her Anaconda music video. How is her video any different from Miley Cyrus’s ?
I do agree that there is a hug double standard in the media. And I also agree that even though Minaj’s video was “inappropriate” to some, it was just a video to others. It was Nicki Minaj’s music video, aren’t all her videos a bit risque? I didn’t see anything different in this video that I haven’t already seen in her past videos. In this situation, I think she should have gotten nominated. I mean she did break records for that video as well, so why not be recognized?
I definitely like that you choose to talk about the double standard in the media between Black and White women. Although Nicki and Taylor both deem themselves feminist, it seems that white artists like Taylor, more often than not get the recognition. I also liked that you touched on white appropriation of black culture in the media. Media outlets have made it okay to basically adopt a culture that isn’t yours, and play upon the stereotypes associated with that particular culture.
With Nicki Minaj being one of the only black female rapper I believe that she isn’t given the recognition that she deserves in all aspects. Most people find her too vulgar for a female rapper but if a male rapper states things about what he would do to a girl the media just claims it as a song of passion. Nicki Minaj in my opinion isn’t the best rapper but I believe in what she stands for.
I believe Nicki Minaj makes a very credible point about the double standards within the media between African American women and white women. Bringing the issue to the social media platform of twitter was very bold of her, in expressing her feelings and outrage of it all. Minaj was just stating a factual point, but ultimately got the end of the stick with a lot of backlash about her comment. Overall, I believe she was not attacking anyone or thought about doing so, she just wanted to make a statement that just because she is an African American rapper her groundbreaking hit music video still did not get nominated for such a discriminating reason.
I love the line where Nicki says she no longer considers herself a “female rapper,” but just “a rapper.” Even though this sentence seems so simple, it is truly so powerful because it shines light on the controversy of feminism in the workplace. To Nicki, her career in music is her workplace.
True dat. No seriously, it is a shame that there is double standards everywhere and they are evident in some places more than others. One being the media. Nicki is right, she isn’t a “female rapper” she is simply a rapper who is trying to earn what she deserves and voiced her opinions that were mistaken for something else. Somebody had to say it, and Nicki is that somebody.
This summary was very insightful. I think that as a black woman in the music industry Nicki is a credible source because she has had experience with the double standard of black and white women. I think Nicki had the right to finally speak out about it, but I think she should of chose a different outlet than Twitter. I totally agree that Nicki has become a black feminist and has been a person that is able to rid of the “angry black woman” stereotype by simply stating her opinion.
I agree that there are STILL racial biases (white>black) in American media, but I feel that specifically with this feud it had nothing to do with race. Although Taylor Swift isn’t my go to artist, her music video Bad Blood, was different. It captured a wide audience of people that Nicki’s didn’t. Let’s be honest here. We’ve already seen the “big booty, flashy” music videos before! It’s not new. Taylor used a unique way to get her music noticed. She deserved to win in this instance. Now, you could argue racial injustice when Taylor Swift won the 2009 VMA Award and Beyonce didn’t. Let’s be honest with ourselves again. (Beyonce > Taylor, back then for sure.) So the fact that Beyonce didn’t win was a pretty major thing, which brought Kanye to the stage to make that point broadcasted.
You could argue Tyra Bank’s background as a new supermodel or Vanessa Williams being Miss America controversy as not being “full black”. Those are a bit outdated, but those are good examples of how racially biased the media is against African American women.