Nicki Minaj Says Double Standards In Media Against Women Of Color Are ‘Sad And Pathetic’

Nicki Minaj has decried the double standard in media against black women, calling it “pathetic and sad” in the November issue of Marie Claire.

The 33-year-old Trinidadian-born rapper made a comparison between reality TV personality Kim Kardashian and white women to drive home her point.

“When Kim Kardashian's naked picture came out, [Sharon Osbourne] praised it, and my fans attacked her for being such a hypocrite,” Minaj, born Onika Tanya Maraj, said. “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.”

Still on the issues people of color are facing, Minaj also talked about how these relate to the violence in the U.S. “We tend to not remember the black women who are mourning these men and who are thinking, ‘Oh, my God, what am I going to tell my child now about where his father is,’ and the struggle it is for black women to then move on after they lose their husband or their boyfriend,” Minaj said. “The strong women in these inner cities often go unnoticed ... no one really ever puts a hand out to them.”

Minaj has often talked about racism in her interviews and on social media. In July 2014, she tweeted, “Racism is alive and well,” said to be a gibe at fellow rapper Iggy Azalea, who has been accused of appropriating black culture to advance her own career.

She also bewailed police violence against unarmed black people in a December 2014 interview with Rolling Stone.

“It's sickening, and I've been reading so many people saying, 'Why are we surprised?' That's what's really sad: that we should somehow be used to being treated like animals,” Minaj told Rolling Stone. “It's gotten to the point where people feel like there's no accountability: If you are law enforcement and you do something to a black person, you can get away with it.”

Minaj’s full interview with Marie Claire for the magazine’s November issue will drop on Oct. 18.