I’m a huge fan of Cardi B. I look up to her as a hard-working, talented young woman of color who came up in the rap industry starting from scratch. She is truly a self-made millionaire and deserves all the success and fame that comes her way. I love her music and her new song, Twerk. However, the video is very explicit and not something you want your daughter or son to see to say politely. The women in the video are all women of color shaking her ass and dropping it to the ground in thongs. Visually this could be perceived as very demeaning to black women! Many videos like this have their roots in a long history in African American culture of black women idolized as sex symbols coming from slavery. The white artist, Lexi Panterra, who claimed that Cardi B was discriminating against white women by not having Caucasian women in her video, sounds like a joke to me! This really got me thinking, is this something we should commend?

Why can’t there be Caucasian women in the Twerk video or similar videos as much as we see Black women in this role? Should women fight for a role of being seen in public by shaking off their assets and being demonized for what our ancestors blessed us for the world to see? I understand that sex does sell and what is provocative attracts attention, however; How do these kinds of music videos affect women of color in their professional and personal lives? Amid the longest government shutdown in US history, many women are struggling to make ends meet and some will be forced to work in private industry. There is already a stigma around women being aggressive to get to the top, but we have a double stigma towards black women because of the role they are perceived to play in society. This stems from slavery when black women were raped and viewed as property for forced labor and, in many cases, sexual gratification. I enjoy dressing professionally with a bit of flair and a sexy look at times, but could we be sabotaging ourselves by playing with the perception of our culture and the box we are placed in? Are music videos like Twerk putting women of color into a deeper hole, if you will, of big booty zealotry and serving no purpose other than dropping it? Your thoughts?