Double Standards — The Cardi B case

Double standards are part of life. Whether it’s the rich old white man vs the ghetto black teenager, or how your manager treats you vs his favorite employee, double standards are everywhere. This does not imply that we should not shed light when they are present to try and fight them.

In this article, I want to discuss something that recently happened that made me mad about how serious it is. Drugging and raping confessions were looked over because the one who made them is a FEMALE pop star. When the allegations were against a male star, we all know how that ended up.

The Cardi B case

For those who do not know, Cardi B is a female rapper turned mega pop star from the Bronx, NY. She recently made headlines when a couple of her old videos resurfaced online where she admits to being a sex worker (which is illegal by law), who lured men with sex to drug them (which is illegal by law) and rob them (which is illegal by law).

let that sink in for a second…

She faced little to no backlash. What made things even worse for me, was the statement she put out after the fact to justify what she did.

Here is the full statement:

I’m seeing on social media that a Live I did 3 years ago has popped back up. A Live where I talked about things I have to do in my past, I never claim to be perfect or come from a perfect world with a perfect past. I always speak my truth [and] I always own my shit.

I’m apart of a hip hop culture where you can talk about where you come from, talk about the wrong things you had to do to get where you are. I never glorified the things I brought up in that Live. I have never even put those things in my music because I’m not proud of it.

I made the choices that I did at the time because I had very limited options. I was blessed to have been able to rise from that, but so many women have not. The men I spoke about in my Live were men that I dated, that I was involved with, men that were conscious, willing and aware. I have a past that I can’t change, we all do.

Well, let me start by calling bullshit on the content of that statement which was probably written by her publicist or PR disaster manager or whatever...

Let’s start with everything wrong with this statement:

• Speaking your truth does not exonerate you from what you did.

• She says she comes from a culture where you can talk about where you come from, yet she says she does not include those things in her lyrics since she is not proud of them. Which one is it, Cardi? Rappers often talk about their drug and gang-related past, in their songs. Ranting on an Instagram live is not culture related.

• She was a stripper. A ratchet stripper. She had options. Even if she did not, that does not give her a pass to do what she did.

• Drugging and robbing your significant other is still a crime.

• By definition, being drugged means NOT being conscious.

• Please, introduce me to who’s into that crazy sex role-playing where you are drugged and robbed. I would want to rob them too. I am being very sarcastic of course. Saying those men were conscious, willing and aware is just playing stupid.

Had a man done those exact same things, he would have been behind bars by now. He would have every female movement against him. He would have been canceled. The list really just goes on and on. Just look up what happened to Bill Cosby and R. Kelly.

I am not saying that men should be forgiven for behaving immorally. However, just like men and dragged through the mud when allegations are made against them, women should receive equal treatment.

Actually, I can make a case how Louis C.K. masturbating over the phone is really nothing compared to what Cardi admitted to doing. Yet he is canceled while she is cashing multi-million dollars from Pepsi, Netflix, and Fashionova among others.

Cardi B should be canceled. Cardi B should face trial. Cardi B should go to jail.

Cardi B however, will just let this fade in a couple of months until the next man scandal when our attention span just shifts away and forget about this whole thing.