Nicki Minaj is a very good rapper. She's also stepping up as one of our nation's foremost media critics.
In an interview for the November cover of Marie Claire, Minaj made a compelling observation. When Black women post nude selfies, she noted, it is seen as classless. But when white women post similar photographs, they are praised for their freedom of self-expression.
Exhibit A in this troubling dichotomy: Sharon Osbourne's response to Kim Kardashian's nude selfies.
"When Kim Kardashian's naked picture came out, [Osbourne] praised it, and my fans attacked her for being such a hypocrite," Minaj told the magazine. "So it wasn't trashy and raunchy when a white woman did it, but it was when a Black woman did it? It's quite pathetic and sad, but that is my reality, and I've gotten accustomed to just shutting it down."
The Trinidad-born hip-hop star has consistently done just that. When she's not teaching Taylor Swift to send a text before making embarrassing statements about VMA double standards, she's placing Black women and body diversity at the center of her art.
Read the full profile on Minaj, by writer and activist Janet Mock, when November's Marie Claire hits stands October 18.