YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, FANS of 25-year-old rapper Cardi B were surprised to see a transphobic meme shared to her official Facebook page. 

The meme, which has since been removed, featured a transphobic slur and prompted fans to write comments like “Go take care of your kid instead of enabling harm to the trans community”, and “Cardi… You might want to consider how many trans fans you got.” The post has since been removed, but can be seen here. 

Cardi later posted a response to the incident on her own Twitter. Acknowledging the post, but  failing to apologise for the upset that it caused, Cardi wrote:

It’s come to my attention that there have been offensive posts made on what used to be my Facebook page. For the past year and a half a FORMER team member has been the only one with access to the account. 

It's come to my attention that there have been offensive posts made on what used to be my Facebook page. For the past year and a half a FORMER team member has been the only one with access to the account.

— iamcardib (@iamcardib) September 16, 2018

Fans were not only unhappy with the fact that Cardi didn’t apologise, but also with the fact that the rapper had been called out for using similar language in the past. 

After Cardi B blamed her “FORMER” team member for posting the meme to Facebook, one Twitter user shared a video of the rapper using transphobic slurs and asked, “Did someone on your team post this?” 

Did someone on your team post this?pic.twitter.com/sohLwsYE79

— del. (@dilemmv) September 16, 2018

Indeed, Cardi has failed to take responsibility for homophobic and transphobic comments that she made in the past, never mind apologise for them. 

In January of this year, Cardi’s husband Offset released a song where he rapped the line “I cannot vibe with queers.” Offset eventually made an attempt at an apology, where he wrote, “My passion for fashion has lead me to a lot of gay people around me who I have mad respect for and we are very cool so I’m not in a place where I’m hating like that.” 

When I wrote that I was thinking of words that could rhyme with the others (here, lear, solitaire, bear) and I saw this definition about her having a queer feeling she was being watched and it fit what I was thinking about a stalker creepy paparazzi situation. To me that “queer” I don’t mean someone who’s gay. I mean lame people who film you, post it and stalk you. Lingo that means strange or odd. 

Offset ended his statement by writing “I’M SORRY” in all caps, and saying that he’s “offended [he] offended anybody.” Offset also uploaded a screenshot of the dictionary definition of the word ‘queer’. Not exactly the best apology ever made. 

Cardi, however, was not so apologetic about Offset’s homophobic lyrics. She went live on video streaming app Periscope, and said:

I’m not going to let somebody call him ‘homophobic’ when I know that he’s not. And I’m saying this because I’ve seen him around these… around gays, and he treats them with the same respect he treats everybody. He never acts uncomfortable and he just don’t care. 

Actress Laverne Cox broke down what exactly is wrong with using homophobic and transphobic slurs, even if you have gay or trans friends. She said:

I am a huge advocate for free speech, but as long as it’s socially acceptable to make jokes about trans people, to make and share memes disparaging and demeaning trans folks, trans folks will continue to be murdered and denied civil rights.

It seems that Cardi’s biggest problem is that she isn’t very good at listening. If LGBTQ people tell you that something is offensive to them, it’s not really up to you to decide that it’s not.

Many people have agreed that even if it was Cardi’s former team member who made the Facebook post, it’s still up to her to apologise for leaving her “name and image in the hands of those who no longer work for you.” 

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