Cardi B Responds to Trolls Who Say She Isn't Black Since She Speaks Spanish

[Emoryal]

Who Is Black?
JUNE 10, 2001
ROSA CLEMENTE

Yesterday, an interesting thing happened to me. I was told I am not Black.

The kicker for me was when my friend stated that the island of Puerto Rico was not a part of the African Diaspora. I wanted to go back to the old skool playground days and yell: “You said what about my momma?!” But after speaking to several friends, I found out that many Black Americans and Latinos agree with him. The miseducation of the Negro is still in effect!

I am so tired of having to prove to others that I am Black, that my peoples are from the Motherland, that Puerto Rico, along with Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic, are part of the African Diaspora. Do we forget that the slave ships dropped off our people all over the world, hence the word Diaspora?

The Atlantic slave trade brought Africans to Puerto Rico in the early 1500s. Some of the first slave rebellions took place on the island of Puerto Rico. Until 1846, Africanos on the island had to carry a libreta to move around the island, like the passbook system in apartheid South Africa. In Puerto Rico, you will find large communities of descendants of the Yoruba, Bambara, Wolof and Mandingo people. Puerto Rican culture is inherently African culture.

There are hundreds of books that will inform you, but I do not need to read book after book to legitimize this thesis. All I need to do is go to Puerto Rico and look all around me. Damn, all I really have to do is look in the mirror every day.

I am often asked what I am—usually by Blacks who are lighter than me and by Latinos/as who are darker than me. To answer the $64,000 question, I am a Black Boricua, Black Rican, Puertorique’a! Almost always I am questioned about why I choose to call myself Black over Latina, Spanish, Hispanic. Let me break it down.

I am not Spanish. Spanish is just another language I speak. I am not a Hispanic. My ancestors are not descendants of Spain, but descendants of Africa. I define my existence by race and land. (Borinken is the indigenous name of the island of Puerto Rico.)

Being Latino is not a cultural identity but rather a political one. Being Puerto Rican is not a racial identity, but rather a cultural and national one. Being Black is my racial identity. Why do I have to consistently explain this to those who are so-called conscious? Is it because they have a problem with their identity? Why is it so bad to assert who I am, for me to big-up my Africanness?

My Blackness is one of the greatest powers I have. We live in a society that devalues Blackness all the time. I will not be devalued as a human being, as a child of the Supreme Creator.

Although many of us in activist circles are enlightened, many of us have baggage that we must deal with. So many times I am asked why many Boricuas refuse to affirm their Blackness. I attribute this denial to the ever-rampant anti-Black sentiment in America and throughout the world, but I will not use this as an excuse. Often Puerto Ricans who assert our Blackness are not only outcast by Latinos who identify more with their Spanish Conqueror than their African ancestors, but we are also shunned by Black Americans who do not see us as Black.

Nelly Fuller, a great Black sociologist, stated:

Until one understands the system of White supremacy, anything and everything else will confuse you.

Divide and conquer still applies.

Listen people: Being Black is not just skin color, nor is it synonymous with Black Americans. To assert who I am is the most liberating and revolutionary thing I can ever do. Being a Black Puerto Rican encompasses me racially, ethically and most importantly, gives me a homeland to refer to.

So I have come to this conclusion: I am whatever I say I am! (Thank you, Rakim.)

​

Divide and conquer? You dudes need to be...

 

[Northern Son]

She's black-ish.

Definitely not 100% African descent but not many black Americans are. DNA test would probably reveal a majority of African blood (say 55%) and then maybe 35% Spaniard and 10% Native...something like that.

She's black in the way anyone not born in Africa, but is African descent would be. She's just not "I went to Mount Zion Missionary Baptist C.O.G.I.C. and was apart of the Ice Cold Alpha-Chi chapter of *insert sorority*" black.

Foreign black as it were.

Um, no she's not

 

[Londilon]

Her parents:

Cardi's Grandma:

AINT NO ONE BLACK! Not her, not her parents, and not her grandparents.

 

[truth2you]

She not black. She look like wha Jamaican call Cooley which is them east Indian transplants from India and migrated to countries like Trinidad and Jamaica . Ask Cooley if dem black . Cardi reaching..If she could find that one nikka in her family tree she would use that to validate herself as black. Cardi ain't filling out applications saying that she black. She can absorb all the black nut in Africa in her polluted womb and spit out mongrel babies and she still wouldn't be black. She a snake and y'all need to be wary of who y'all call black. Take this trash ass bytch somewhere

I think her mother is half indian, but not sure

You know she has black in her because of the hair. Both her, and her sister, can pass for black. She has black in her. In Trinidad, and Dominican Republic, there is a lot of mixing in their genes. All you need is two people who have black in them to come together, and their children would look more black then both parents. Cardi, and her sister, is proof of that.

Her pops is lost, though, his reason for different languages is some lost c00n shyt. He don't want to admit part of his family came over as slaves, so he is on that Taino shyt.

 

[Northern Son]

Interesting that she looks "blacker" than everyone in her family. Her mom and dad could pass for Sicilian whereas Cardi is without question a woman of color. The fact that her "blackness" is even debatable to many yet her own kin are explicitly non-black looking is interesting. Genetics are something else.

 

[truth2you]

Interesting that she looks "blacker" than everyone in her family. Her mom and dad could pass for Sicilian whereas Cardi is without question a woman of color. The fact that her "blackness" is even debatable to many yet her own kin are explicitly non-black looking is interesting. Genetics are something else.

I seen her mother in Trinidad with an old black man, but I don't know who he was to her, but I'm assuming they were related the way the picture looked

Her pops would no doubt have black in him if he is from D.R., he doesn't look like a straight white D.R. person

Cardi B, and her sister, are EXACTLY why the "one drop rule" stayed in the states. Imagine having family members who pass for white, have children who look black, and get to inherit all that wealth, then have children with other black people! Them old white nikkas made sure they kept that rule

 

[Hey_zeus]

She, herself said she's not black.

 

[Scustin Bieburr]

When I read that all I could think of was the juelz gif

Shes black now because she thinks itll benefit her career and add credibility. Her blackness is a performative blackness. It's an approximation of what someone thinks black people are.

 

[HarlemHottie]

No you don’t pick up they accent, you imitate it. My husband is Cuban, I been around his family for a long time, never picked up their accent or patterns of speech. Mind you I was born and raised in Spanish Harlem. Don’t nobody at home or in my family spoke Spanish, therefore I never picked it up. I understand a word here or there, but a whole accent? Nah you imitating it.

But that's how language works, sis. The people you spend time with (during the important language acquisition yrs, 3-7) influence your tone, your usage, etc. It's possible that you're especially resistant. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? There's a connection.

Psychologists call it mirroring,

Spoiler

Mirroring is the behaviour in which one person subconsciously imitates the gesture, speech pattern, or attitude of another. Mirroring often occurs in social situations, particularly in the company of close friends or family. The concept often affects other individuals' notions about the individual that is exhibiting mirroring behaviors, which can lead to the individual building rapport with others.

Mirroring is the subconscious replication of another person's nonverbal signals.[1] This concept takes place in everyday interactions, and often goes unnoticed by both the person enacting the mirroring behaviors as well as the individual who is being mirrored. The activation of mirror neurons takes place within the individual who begins to mirror another's movements, and allows them a greater connection and understanding with the individual who they are mirroring, as well as allowing the individual who is being mirrored to feel a stronger connection with the other individual. Mirroring is distinct from conscious imitation under the premise that while the latter is a conscious, typically overt effort to copy another person, mirroring is subconsciously done during the act and often goes unnoticed.

Mirroring (psychology) - Wikipedia

 

[YoungMoneyCashMoneyBoy]

Thecoli...where africans aren't black until it's time to defend cardi b. Where african ancestry doesn't matter until it's time to defend cardi.

 

[VICVALLIN]

she has said it herself she aint black

and didnt she call her marriage a Interracial relationship

i think maybe she's conflating interracial and intercultural.

 

[Stacks]

The way so-called Brothers cape for this talentless, classless, racist spic bytch is disgusting

 

[mr.africa]

that's how her parents look?
really?

 

[Sad Bunny]

I never thought she was black at all.

 

[skeetsinternal]

She has black heritage, but it’s a stretch to say she’s black.

Swallowing blk nut..