Interesting how it's all "trust Black women" and "Black women are the real heroes" until a Black woman says something folks don't want to hear.
Do I think not voting is a smart call? No. But I can understand the frustration that leads to the declaration.
Here's the link to the article, (edited on 5/27 to fix the link. sorry!) since nobody else bothered to provide it.
Cardi emerged on the scene as a people’s princess from a working-class background, and she’s been vocal on social issues, too, from New York’s city and state government to Social Security and immigration. A political junkie with an encyclopedic recollection of American presidents, she became a sought-after pundit, endorsing and interviewing Bernie Sanders and then Joe Biden as they pursued the presidency.
Huh. And yet prev decided she was an "ignorant moron."
Then, last November, she declared she’d never do it again — for any president or hopeful. By March, she had told L.A. radio host Big Boy she wouldn’t even vote in the upcoming presidential election. She tells me she means it. “I don’t fuck with both of y’all niggas,” she says of Biden and Trump. Before, she had seen Trump as a dire threat, but under Biden, she’s felt “layers and layers of disappointment” from what she sees as domestic and foreign mismanagement. The cost of living is too high, wages are too low, and too little is being done about it, she says. “I feel like people got betrayed.”
“It’s just like, damn, y’all not caring about nobody,” she says. “Then, it really gets me upset that there is solutions to it. There is a solution. I know there’s a solution because you’re spending billions of dollars on any fucking thing.”
After President Biden insisted the U.S. could fund both Israel and Ukraine in their respective wars against Gaza and Russia in October, Cardi spoke out against it. She echoes the sentiment with me, but is concerned artists of color can get “blackballed” for talking about the war in Gaza. “[America] don’t pay for endless wars for countries that have been going through shit for a very long time,” she says. “There’s countries [where] kids are getting killed every single day, but because the [U.S.] won’t benefit from that country, they won’t help. I don’t like that America has this superhero cape on. We never did things to be superheroes. We did things for our own convenience.”
Sounds like she's put some thought into her opinion. I'm sure everyone assuming she's stupid and has no idea what she's talking about isn't basing that on her race or her looks or her current profession or her previous professions...right?
And I've read that section a couple of times now and I'm still struggling to see where she's encouraging anyone else to not vote. Or where she said she wasn't going to vote in state and local elections...or even national elections for offices other than president.
Of course, the album is just one hurdle. Now that Cardi B, the daughter of a Dominican-born cabbie father and a careful Trinidadian mother, raised poor in the Bronx, has earned most of what she’s wanted, she’s been tasked with a new kind of survival: propelling her life, family, and legacy forward without getting stuck in the traps of perfectionism or criticism. And as she works to solidify her status as a rap icon, she struggles to manage the more mortal but no less important challenges of motherhood and marriage.
CARDI B’S HOME is at its homiest on the weekends. That’s when, she tells me in L.A., she and the eight people who live with her in New Jersey — her kids Kulture (age five) and Wave (age two), plus an aunt, a niece, and four cousins — are joined by even more family. Cardi feels the most like herself then, with everyone sharing food and music. “We do a lot of oxtail. We do a lot of fried fish,” she says. “We do a lot of crab legs. We do a lot of goat.” She has a Filipino aunt by marriage who makes desserts with mango, condensed milk, and lychee jelly, as well as a savory meat dish Cardi loves but the name of which she can’t recall. “It looks like a little burrito, a little piece of doo-doo,” she says, fondly. The kitchen, however, isn’t Cardi’s domain. “One thing I hate doing is cooking,” she says. “It takes too much of my time.”
Cardi’s family proudly plays her songs at the house, though she’d rather they didn’t. “I’m like, ‘Oh, God, here y’all go,’ ” she says with a bashful smile, elongating the “o” for dramatic effect. Most often though, they listen to Spanish-language music. “My country” — she means the Dominican Republic — “they listen to merengue, they listen to típico, they listen to bachata. I’m really into that.” She’d like to make a Spanish-language album in the near future. “As soon as I finish this album, I am going to fucking Puerto Rico,” Cardi says, especially wanting to make reggaeton there.
This is a Black woman raising Black kids in the US in the 21st century. She's a second-generation immigrant who grew up poor. She has a history of sex work. She lives with her extended family, works a ridiculous amount, and struggles to balance marriage, kids, and her profession. The idea that her "wealth and fame" are going to protect her from political fallout is pretty fucked up and completely ahistorical. They may provide a bit of a cushion, but they are not a shield.
Again, I'm not saying I agree with her "I'm not voting" statement, but then again, do I need to? Does anyone? She wasn't asking for feedback or telling anyone else what to do. The article was looong. In a functional nation, the voting thing wouldn't even be a blip.
I'm not even a Cardi B fan (like, I don't follow her career, but do enjoy some of her music) and the pair of tweets in the original post got my hackles up. I doubt it's endearing the message to folks who are Cardi B fans, but *shrug*
"Say whatever you want as long as you agree with Trump" and "say whatever you want as long as you loudly and repeatedly insist you'll vote for Biden" don't look all that different from the outside, y'all. Not that anyone is still reading this far into it, but this whole response - and I'd hazard Cardi B's message as well - are not "fuck yous" to the Dems. It's pleading with them to listen and understand and do better because they are all we have. And they are increasingly failing us (and yes, that's how it works. we put them in the job, they succeed or fail. the voters don't fail their reps. that's some abuser-ass look what you made me do shit).
Responding to that desperation with "look at this stupid bitch thinking she knows what she's talking about" over and over is, imo, unhelpful. But I'm repeatedly reminded that I don't know shit. So. Yano. Take it for what it's worth.
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
titsay
