Every so often, Cardi B gets on social media to address rumors about her personal life. In recent years, she’s talked about her relationship with Offset and her days as a New York stripper. On Monday (Jan. 25), however, the topic of discussion was her Afro-Latino roots.
It’s not certain who got the Bronx rapper started, but she took to Twitter to make her race and ethnicity known to inquiring fans. “Let me do this shit again,” she started before posting photos of her maternal grandmother, mother, aunts and uncle.
Throughout her career, Cardi — who was born to a Dominican father and Trinidian mother — has been criticized for failing to acknowledge both sides equally, but she disagrees as she identifies herself as Afro-Latina.
Alongside a photo of her Vibe Vita cover, she highlighted the words, “Afro-Latina” to point out one of the subjects mentioned during the interview. “Before I even got my teeth fix, I was talking about my roots,” she penned the caption. “Not just cause of fame. Thank you, carry on.”
The Invasion of Privacy star also included an old video where she says she is half-Spanish, admitting she was unaware of the correct terminology at the time.
“Back then, I didn’t really used the right terms. I haven’t always been super woke lmaaaoooo,” she explained. “I should have said half Hispanic cause me saying I’m Spanish don’t make sense cause i[t’]s a language. As we get older, we learn the terms better.”
The “WAP” lyricist has addressed comments about her race on multiple occasions. In 2019, during an Instagram Live, she vented, “People just don’t be understanding shit. It’s like, ‘Cardi’s Latin, she’s not Black.’ And it’s like, bro, my features don’t come from…white people fucking, okay?’ And they always wanna race-bait when it comes to me…I have Afro features. ‘Oh, but your parents are light-skinned…all right, but my grandparents aren’t.”
In an interview with Zendaya, she explained her frustrations with the perception of her race. “One thing that always bothers me is that people know so little about my culture. We are Caribbean people, and a lot of people be attacking me because they feel like I don’t be saying that I’m Black,” she said. “Some people want to decide if you’re Black or not, depending on your skin complexion, because they don’t understand Caribbean people or our culture.”
Then, following her most recent rant, Cardi gave a few recommendations to those questioning her race and ethnicity. “It’s time for ya to pick up a book,” she said in one tweet. In another, she advised, “Learn my countries history before ya type on this app.”
See Cardi’s tweets below.