After breaking through in 2019 and collaborating with Beyonce in early 2020, Megan Thee Stallion has been riding an even bigger wave of popularity this summer due to the song she featured in with superstar Cardi B.
WAP shot to No. 1 on iTunes’ songs chart, in spite of the controversy over its sexually explicit lyrics. But Megan Thee Stallion is also involved in another recent controversy; which has raised important questions about Black women and violence.
In July, news broke that the 25-year-old artist had survived a violent incident during which she was shot in the feet. It wasn’t until later that Megan shared photos of her injuries from the shooting on Instagram and identified her alleged assailant; Tory Lanez.
Megan went public in part to address jokes circulating online about her shooting — including by some fellow celebrities. “It’s not funny,” the rapper said in the post. “It was nothing for y’all to start making up fake stories about. I didn’t put my hands on nobody. I didn’t deserve to get shot.”
“Megan mentioned Black women feeling unprotected,” says Clover Hope; author of the forthcoming book The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop. “She mentioned her fear of police during the incident… That there might be some repercussions against the Black people who were with her in the car.”
“She mentioned people’s tendencies to kind of, just, make violence funny online. There’s a way in which Megan opened up the lane for a conversation about these big issues by talking about her personal story.”
The assaulter, Tory Lanez, later came out and confessed that he shot Megan because he was drunk. By so doing, he has confessed to three crimes; public intoxication, possession of a firearm, and assault with a firearm.
Yet, the onus still fell on Megan to protect him from the police. This just goes to show how the oppression for Black women is two-fold; battling racism from the police and having to protect your assaulter because he’s Black.
