Cardi B has emphasized her stance against being mislabeled or misrepresented.
During her Instagram Live session on Thursday (April 4), the "Up" rapper addressed the distinction between being Mexican and being Dominican, clarifying the difference for her audience.
“I feel offended that people call me Mexican and stuff because I’m not Mexican,” she began. “I’m not Mexican. My nationality’s not the same. We don’t have the same cultures. We speak the same language. We have different dialects.”
Cardi B is tired of being called “Mexican”: “You’re not gonna erase my nationality” pic.twitter.com/aQmFfeGTcG
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He continued: “We don’t eat the same food. We don’t eat the same nothing. Call a Nigerian Ghanian. Call a Haitian Jamaican or call a Jamaican a Haitian. Call a Ghanian a Trini. And you tell me how they’re gonna feel.”
Cardi B’s anger about being called Mexican may stem from a spat with a social media influencer.
The drama began when “Bodak Yellow” rapper caught wind of a TikTok from user @bdtrelilbrother, who also calls himself Raymonte, in which he claimed that Cardi is “very, very ghetto” despite not being “visibly Black.”
The Bronx rap star took issue with his comments and fired back with a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter).
Cardi and Raymonte then engaged in a heated back and forth, with the rapper accusing the TikTok star of discrediting her success by “playing the color card.”
Amidst the ongoing race debate, Raymonte asserted that he and Bardi had a conversation months prior, during which she questioned why he didn't refer to Ice Spice as "a Mexican."
In response, Cardi stated, "The same reason why you felt at ease calling me a Mexican when I'm Dominican. I questioned why you felt comfortable labeling me as Mexican, whereas Ice, Jharell Jerome, Zoe Saldana, and I are all Dominicans, yet you don't apply that label to them."
“You do it to me because you know that’s what people use to hurt me… same way as you use my name in that video knowing exactly what you doing.”
After seeing her name brought up in the bickering, Ice Spice stepped in and responded to Cardi’s above post: “no offense bardi its cus i have a dominican parent & a black one [crying face emoji] [black heart emoji].”
The Invasion of Privacy star wrote back: “I think there might be some confusion on what was said. I asked why he feels so comfortable calling me Mexican? I have no Mexican parents. My mom is Trini.. she came out of a whole black woman. My father is Dominican…I’m Dominican just like you.
“I also used other Dominicans as an example because as you should know a lot of times we get clustered into one because of the language.”
She then asked Spice to “send me that pic you took of me wit ya camera from vanity fair? Thank youuu [kiss emoji].”
The “Munch” hitmaker duly obliged, which appeared to diffuse the social media spat as Cardi replied with three heart emojis in the colors of the Dominican flag.