Nicki Minaj’s look on a Turning Level USA stage praising President Donald Trump and JD Vance didn’t land in a vacuum.
Standing earlier than a right-wing viewers, Minaj stated Trump and Vance made her “proud to be an American,” a declaration that triggered swift condemnation from civil rights leaders, political strategists, and cultural critics who pointed to the widening hole between celeb insulation and the lived actuality of Black and brown communities below Trump-era insurance policies.
Bishop Talbert Swan known as the second “the peak of hypocrisy,” noting that Minaj was born in Trinidad and Tobago and has acknowledged being undocumented as a baby.
“She can’t vote in U.S. elections, but she’s praising the architects of insurance policies which are devastating Black individuals, immigrants, and marginalized communities,” Swan stated. “Whereas on a regular basis immigrants, particularly Black and brown immigrants, are being rounded up by ICE, detained, and deported, celeb, wealth, and world fame present insulation. ICE isn’t kicking down Nicki Minaj’s door. Energy protects her in methods it would by no means shield working-class households residing in concern.”
Swan stated wrapping reward for “racist white males who’re erasing Black historical past, attacking civil rights, and brutalizing immigrants” in patriotic language was not independence or braveness, however privilege.
“And it exhibits simply how disconnected some celebrities are from the individuals whose tradition made them wealthy,” he stated.
That distance turned even clearer as a resurfaced video circulated exhibiting Charlie Kirk, the late founding father of Turning Level USA, criticizing Minaj as a “dangerous function mannequin” for Black women. Within the clip, Kirk accused figures like Minaj of “holding Black tradition captive,” whilst his political motion constructed energy by exploiting racial grievances and opposing civil rights protections.
Author, director, and documentary producer Rahiem Shabazz stated Minaj’s alignment with that area was neither unintentional nor innocent.
“Let or not it’s acknowledged plainly: Nicki Minaj is Trinidadian, not Black American. This distinction issues,” Shabazz wrote. “Her historical past has constantly mirrored conduct that’s dismissive, if not overtly hostile, to Black American pursuits.”
He stated showing alongside the widow of Charlie Kirk at what he described as “a thinly veiled MAGA rally and incubator for white nationalist ideology” amounted to alignment, not neutrality.
“When Black Individuals are below sustained assault culturally, politically, and traditionally, silence is betrayal,” Shabazz stated, “however proximity to our adversaries is collaboration.”
Political strategist and entrepreneur Mike Nellis questioned the timing.
“Awfully handy that Nicki Minaj discovered her conservative voice proper as she’s shedding a $20 million mansion and her husband wants a pardon,” Nellis stated. “Similar to Russell Model changing into an anti-woke crusader proper after being accused of sexual assault. It’s a grift as outdated as time.”
For critics, the episode revealed a well-recognized sample the place Black celeb is welcomed by the proper solely when it may be used as a protect in opposition to accountability and a weapon in opposition to Black communities themselves. The identical political motion that celebrates Minaj at the moment is the one pushing mass deportations, rolling again voting rights, attacking Black historical past, and dismantling civil rights enforcement.
Swan stated historical past by no means confuses the 2.
“To reward racist white males who’re erasing Black historical past, attacking civil rights, and brutalizing immigrants, then wrap it in hole patriotism about being ‘proud to be an American’ isn’t daring or unbiased,” he stated. “It’s privilege speaking. Loudly.”
