Cardi B is setting the record straight about her ethnicity and making it clear that there is a difference between what ethnicity, race and nationality means.
“A lot of people don’t know the difference between nationality, race, ethnicity and that’s not nobody’s fault,” she said on Instagram Live on June 25. “That’s actually the schools’ fault, because schools don’t be teaching this s— to people.”
Cardi said that recently while she was in California someone told her she ought to represent for Mexican people. She corrected them and said, “I’m not Mexican at all. I’m West Indian and I’m Dominican. I speak Spanish because I’m Dominican. And it’s like, so what’s the difference between Dominican and Mexican?’ And it’s like, everything!”
“People just don’t be understanding s—, ” she adds. “It’s like, ‘Cardi’s Latin, she’s not black.’ And it’s like, ‘Bro, my features don’t come from … white people f–king, OK?’ And they always wanna race-bait when it comes to me. … I have Afro features. ‘Oh, but your parents are light-skinned … all right, but my grandparents aren’t.”
Cardi explained that her maternal and paternal grandfathers have green eyes. She said her father’s mother is light-skinned but “a little darker than me” and her mother’s mom is “really, really dark.”
“People from the Caribbean islands, it’s a mixture,” she says. “It was one of the first places the slaves were taken to — especially the Dominican Republic … and people don’t be knowing that s—. They just be so confused and they wanna dictate your race so bad. It’s like, bro, pick up a passport and pick up a book so you can f–king know!”
Regardless of the rapper breaking down the differences between race, nationality, and ethnicity, many folks who caught her message maintained that Cardi is not a Black woman while some came agreed with her.
“Cardi is a black latina.”
“I don’t like her music but she is 💯 percent right slave trade was a world affair.”
“She’s not African.. she’s is mixed. Mixed people cannot be black.. she benefits from black culture that’s all. ”
” Tell them, baby, tell them!!”
“She has never identified herself as black person, so what made her change her mind?? She’s has even called black girls roaches.”