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Love & Hip-Hop icon Cardi B has defended her use of the word “retarded” in an interview with Billboard after being named by the magazine as “Woman of the Year.”
In her interview, Cardi, 28, made reference to an October 2020 incident in which The Bronx-born rapper accidentally posted a nude image to Instagram. Cardi addressed the issue in a voice message on Twitter saying, “Lord, Lord, why the f*** you have to make me so stupid and retarded? Why? Why, why, why?”
Those comments led to “#CardiBIsOverParty” becoming a minor Twitter trend. During the same message, Cardi added, “I’m going to eat my breakfast, and then I’m going to go to a party because I’m not even going to think about it. I am not going to think about it, ok? Nope, no I’m not. I’m not. It is what it is. S*** happens. F*** it, it’s not even the first time. I mean, I used to f****** be a stripper so whatever. Ay, Dios mío.”
Cardi Wants Her Critics to Chill as She Is ‘Just a Regular-Degular B****’
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Cardi told Billboard, “I don’t want to be like, ‘Oh, female artists, we have it hard.’ But we do fucking be having it mad hard! N***** be out here doing the most, being disrespectful. Just the other day, I was getting chewed up because I said the R-word. Like, how you gonna cancel me for calling myself retarded?” Cardi went on to say, “They want you to be Mother Teresa, they want you to put out music, and they want you to look a certain way. It’s like, ‘Y’all gotta chill — I’m just a regular-degular b****, man.’” Cardi is being featured on the cover of the magazine’s Women of the Year issue.
Despite saying that social media was now a “toxic place,” Cardi said that she would always love the platform because she “came up from social media. If it wasn’t for me showing my personality on social media, I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”
Heavy Found 2 Instances of Cardi Using the Word ‘Retarded’ on Twitter
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Heavy found two instances of Cardi using the word “regarded” on her Twitter page. Both messages came within minutes of each other on January 2, 2017. In the first message, Cardi replied to a now-deleted tweet saying, “Ok sooo your wanna get technical right ? are you my doctor?NO! so how can you determine if I am retarded or not ..dumbass please stfu.” In the second message, sent two minutes later, Cardi said in part, “Never imagine you will be a faded picture” and added, “I’m 2 different types of retarded.”
In October 2020, Cardi was quoted as using the word during an Instagram Live session following her decision to reunite with husband Offsett. Cardi said in part, “We’re some really typical two young m***********, got married early, that’s what we are. We’re not no different than y’all f*****’ dysfunctional ass relationships. We’re the same way. We’re just more public. And I’m more retarded.”
‘Retarded’ Was Introduced as a Medical Term in 1961 but Has Since Evolved in to a Slur
According to an article on the website for the Special Olympics, where the term is referred to as the “R-Word,” it was first introduced as a medical term in 1961 but has since evolved into a slur. The article reads in part, ” Those who use the R-word often do so with little regard for the pain it causes people with intellectual disabilities—and the exclusion it perpetuates in our society.”
In 2010, President Barack Obama signed Rosa’s Law, a decree that removed the term from federal law, replacing it with “intellectual disability.” The law was named for Rosa Marcellino, a young girl in Edgewater, Maryland, whose family became angered at the amount of times the word was used to describe her. Macellino lives with down syndrome.
The Special Olympics has worked with schools and other institutions to create the Spread the Word campaign in order to educate people about the negative impact of the word.
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