You guys know that Nicki Minaj cares not when it comes to creating controversy. Whether she’s twerking, using Malcolm X’s picture as the single art for her single “Lookin’ A– Ni–a” or calling out people online and on stage, Ms. Minaj remains pretty unbothered. But she’s drawn some criticism for sharing this video on Instagram on Sunday:
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A video posted by Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj) on Dec 4, 2016 at 6:06pm PST
In it, Minaj, who is sitting in a car on a street in Miami, can be seen taping a White woman standing in front of a shop on the sidewalk. The woman shouts at Minaj that she doesn’t want her help and walks away with her drink and cigarette, cursing and telling Minaj to go away as the rapper laughs. Minaj continues to try and get the woman’s attention, laughing and asking what she did to upset her. Aside from a guy interrupting the correspondence to tell Minaj he’s a big fan, that’s about the gist of the video.
Granted, Minaj found the encounter comical and likely meant no harm in sharing it, but soon enough, some of her followers called her out for posting it. To those individuals, the woman seemed mentally ill, so there was nothing funny about videotaping her and posting it for the rapper’s nearly 69 million followers to see and share. Others, who claimed they live in Miami, stated that the woman is known in South Beach and is indeed mentally ill.
Now the Miami chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is upset. They issued a statement to TMZ saying, “Nobody would make fun of a cancer patient, and mental illness is an illness like any other,” criticizing the star for using her influence in a somewhat negative way. Despite all of that, Minaj has yet to take down the video.
To play devil’s advocate here, we do think that Minaj probably tried to offer the woman some sort of help and she obviously didn’t want it. And, as someone who lives in New York and encounters all types of people with varying behavior, how was Minaj to know the woman was mentally ill? With the cup in her hand, Minaj may have thought she was intoxicated.
But at the same time, this is exactly why you can’t run around videotaping everybody. If they’re not performing or doing things for the sake of being a source of entertainment, then they likely don’t want to be used as your amusement — or that of your 69 million fans. That’s the social media culture, though. Everyone records everything in the belief that it’s harmless. This time? Not so much.
Image via WENN
