Everyone has lost their damn minds.
Megan Thee Stallion just rightfully called out Drake for appropriating her trauma and using it to prop up his wack new track, “Circo Loco.”
The latest Drake album just dropped, and on it — of course — some classic misogynoir. Her Loss, a joint project with 21 Savage, dropped early this morning and immediately sparked controversy.
In the song “Circo Loco,” Drake appears to accuse Megan of lying about being shot by Tory Lanez in 2020.
Back in 2020, Megan revealed on Instagram that she had to have surgery for a foot injury. “I suffered gunshot wounds, as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me.”
Yet, when it was revealed that Toey Lanez was the shooter, instead of empathy and care from the community, the internet erupted with jokes at Meg’s expense. It was so shocking that prominent celebrities posted, reshared, and tweeted memes about Megan. This jaw-dropping display of disregard for a Black woman’s safety — particularly since she’s experienced domestic abuse — made one thing clear: Black women are heart-breakingly vulnerable and unprotected. Even the most famous, most prominent, most “loved” among us.
Fast forward to 2022 and here we are again, watching Megan’s trauma being exploited as a joke and a throwaway bar in a bland-bland-bland and boring song.
In the track’s opening bars, Drake rapped, “This bitch lie ’bout getting shots, but she still a stallion/She don’t even get the joke, but she still smiling.”
The song doesn’t mention Megan by name, but we get the point. The point? The complete disregard for Black women’s trauma.
And we’re tired of it. So is Meg.
A rep from Megan’s team released a statement saying, “Despite the irrefutable evidence that Megan was a victim of gun violence, the ignorant continue to support her attacker.”
I’m deeply disappointed but hardly surprised at Drake’s careless use of Black female pain for his clout. It’s a concerning phenomenon that has deep roots in this country’s racism, where people we perceive as “other” get less empathy. And Black women often bear the brunt of this harsh reality.
In a seminal New York Times article, Sarah Sentilles dissected the prevalence of Black pain depicted in the media by referencing Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others, saying, “Sontag argued that showing only photographs of violence that happens abroad generates separation between subjects and viewers. These images imply that tragedy is inevitable and unavoidable—and therefore more acceptable—when it’s experienced by faraway people; they create the sense that violence is something that happens elsewhere and to others.”
The othering of Black women makes people like Drake feel comfortable doing crazy, destructive things — like making fun of domestic abuse for clout.
This is really coming from an album with a cover featuring a Black woman. Pretty obvious that Black women are props for this project. To objectify. To misappropriate this merely for his power and status. And to silence.
This week has been a barrage of pop culture foolishness. I am ready for it to be over.
