Cardi B took to Instagram on Friday (May 29) to remind her followers to vote in their local elections. Her post arrives the morning after people across the country came together to protest against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody after a white Minneapolis officer kneeled down on his neck, despite his pleas for air.
On Tuesday (May 26), the four officers involved in Floyd’s death were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, which Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called “the right call.” However, none of the officers have been arrested or charged in the incident, with Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman claiming the investigation is going as “expeditiously as possible.”
Cardi, who has used her Instagram as a platform for political discourse before, addressed the situation and reminded her followers of the “power” of voting for local offices.
“I also wanna say this, another way for the people to take power — I don’t wanna make everything political, but it is what it is — it’s by voting,” she said. “And when I say voting, I’m not only talking about the president. We can vote for mayors, we can vote for judges and we can vote for district attorneys.”
“The people who are voting for these people are most likely cops. Most likely rednecks. That’s why every single time that some fu*k sh*t like this happen, it goes to their favor,” she continued. “These people have the power, these judges, these DAs, these attorneys, they have the power to prosecute these cops when they do fu*k sh*t like this. That’s why we have to vote. We have to be aware when these elections are going on. We have to be aware and inform ourselves of these people that are in power… [and] have power where you live at.”
Cardi also spoke about the protests going on in cities such as Minneapolis, Columbus, OH, Los Angeles, Louisville, Kentucky and more.
“Seeing people looting and going extremely outraged, it makes me feel like, ‘Yes! Finally. Muthafu*kas is gonna hear us now,’” she said. “As much as people is so against it, at this point, I feel like I’m not against it, even though it do scare me and I don’t want anybody to get hurt. But it’s really frustrating, because police brutality been going on even way before I was born… How many peaceful protests have we seen? How many trending hashtags have we seen?”
“I feel like I’ve done videos on police brutality, I feel like this is like my seventh time. I’ve been doing police brutality videos ever since my teeth been fu*ked up and the only thing that’s changed has been my fu*king teeth,” she added. “People are tired… so now this is what people have to resort to.”
See Cardi’s full video below.