Dear Kanye West,
Stop slut-shaming Amber Rose. I’m tired of it. Your fans are tired of it.
Women in hip hop are tired of it.
I get that you’re mad at Wiz Khalifa — so you came at him with your best insult. You were soooo excited to announce that you named your forthcoming album Waves, but instead of tweeting you high-fives, Wiz had the audacity to claim you stole the idea from New York cult rap legend Max B. Other hip hop heads agreed with him and it became this whole trending topic. Wiz then has the audacity to tweet the letters “KK.” KK as in Kim Kardashian? Nope. Never. Not happening. How dare Wiz type these holy letters with his filthy hands! Never mind that he’s a stoner and actually is referring to the “Khalifa Kush” strain of weed. Tweet first, think later.
You go IN. Your Twitter fingers are trigger happy and you’re gonna read this boy up and down. Make fun of his music. Mention his skinny jeans.
Tell him that he’s biting your style. Oh, but that’s not enough. If you want to really make him feel it, you need to hit him where it hurts. What’s the absolute worst, most offensive and degrading thing you as a grown man can do? Make fun of Amber Rose. “You wouldn’t have a child if it wasn’t for me,” you tweet. Oh, that’s good. “You let a stripper trap you.” Take that, Wiz. You married a slut. Aren’t you so embarrassed?
Actually Kanye, you should be embarrassed. As a 38-year-old man, you know better. As a husband and father (to a daughter), you know better. It doesn’t matter if Amber was a stripper. She’s a person. A person, you once loved. She was your muse and you created song after song about her. If she chose to strip willingly, who are you to judge her? She’s a grown woman who makes her own decisions. Are we shaming the men who threw dollar bills at her — or gasp — loved her?
The whole point of Amber Rose’s Slut Walk was to do away with these outdated, gender stereotypes. Further, how would you feel if Wiz, or anyone, called Kim out for how she’s leveraged her sexuality for fame? Kim Kardashian became famous for a sex tape with Ray J. She posed naked for Playboy and again for PAPER after giving birth to your daughter with the sole purpose to “break the Internet.” Personally, I think it’s awesome. Hey, if you got it, flaunt it. I applaud the Kardashians for their business savvy, but not everyone sees it that way.
Remember the backlash Kim received when she got the Vogue cover? How about when she posed for Rolling Stone? People in glass houses shouldn’t go on rants. It’s 2016. Hip hop is finally moving in the right direction in becoming more inclusive as a whole. We can all agree that racism is stupid. Homophobia is stupid. Guess what? Misogyny is stupid too. You’re Kanye West. What you say, wear and put out into the world affects an entire culture. Young men and women look to you.
Think before you tweet.
