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Why Taylor Swift And Nicki Minaj’s Feud Is About More Than Just The VMAs

By Chanel Adams
Published on: 14:06 PST, Jul 21, 2015

Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj appear to be in a bit of a Twitter feud. Nicki previously expressed her frustrations over her 2015 MTV VMAs snub. Taylor got herself involved in a feud with the “Hey Mama” rapper. Now, both Taylor’s fans and the media think that Nicki is “bullying” the “Bad Blood” singer.

Nicki Minaj took to Twitter to ask MTV if both of her music videos “missed the deadline” for the 2015 MTV VMA nominations, which were announced on Tuesday morning. Minaj wanted to know why her and Beyonce’s music video for “Feeling Myself” wasn’t nominated. She also wanted to know why her iconic “Anaconda” music video wasn’t nominated for Video of the Year.

Nicki may have hinted that music videos featuring slim women often get nominated for Video of the Year at the awards show. Some of Nicki’s fans thought that the rapper was talking about Miley Cyrus’ infamous “Wrecking Ball” music video. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s fans thought she was talking about the equally infamous “Bad Blood” music video.

It didn’t take Ms. Swift long to fire back at Minaj. She was obviously confused by Minaj’s frustrated tweets. Swift tried to back up her last tweet by showing some support for the rapper, but failed in the process.

That didn’t sit well with Nicki and her fans. As both the rapper and fans argued, it’s not Taylor’s music video that they have a problem with – it’s the issue with how black women are rarely awarded, let alone recognized, for their influence in the music industry. Some of Nicki’s fans even pointed out how hypocritical Taylor is since “Bad Blood” is allegedly about her rumored feud with Katy Perry.

According to Donna Dickens of HotFix, Taylor Swift made Nicki Minaj’s very valid points all about her. In typical Swift style, the singer thought that Minaj was attacking her and her “Bad Blood” music video. It was clear that Minaj wasn’t directly calling out Swift, nor was she talking about a particular music video. Minaj was making a point that most white women get awarded for their “groundbreaking” music videos while black women take the backseat.

“Nicki Minaj was not throwing shade at her fellow artists. She was throwing shade at the system. She’s not speaking in a vacuum. There have been many articles popping up about the intersection of race and feminism and the music industry. Then along comes Taylor Swift to make it all about her.”

Swift was a “bad ally” by saying that she supports women. Not only that, Swift also slammed Minaj for making it about “women against women” when the rapper was making a point about the music industry. Even Minaj was confused by Swift’s, er swift, response.

Even some of Taylor Swift’s fans have taken to Tumblr to state how Swift completely missed the point of Nicki’s tweets. One blogger named “Monica Geller” sums it up best.

“you guys i kNOW the inherent urge to defend/praise taylor is high i KNOW I KNOW I KNOW i’ve been there for 8 years and when people are saying bad things about her my first instinct is always to defend – but the thing is that taylor is genuinely in the wrong here. she wasn’t malicious and her intentions were good but she misconstrued what nicki was saying and as a result derailed a very important conversation about race/body representation in the media. that happens. taylor is INCREDIBLY privileged and as a result she is not going to know when she’s wrong if nobody tells her. if nobody had told her about feminism she would still be anti feminist too. she grew from not considering herself a feminist and i hope she will grow and learn from this. but if you keep praising her for that tweet, you are going to encourage her to repeat these mistakes and it’s going to make people turn on her. it’s going to be a repeat of the backlash she received in 2012 and if you keep praising what she did you are going to be a part of it.”

Another Tumblr user by the name of “Fandoms Hate Black People” argued that Swift’s tweets were intentional.

Her intentions were not f***ing good. White feminists have been speaking over black women for decades. She knows her fans and how they are. Please stop treating this grown-a** white woman like she’s a fucking teenager who didn’t know any better.
The same Taylor Swift sending cease and desist letters and copyrighting black slang wasn’t being malicious? Okay.

Meanwhile, the media is making the Twitter feud about “women against women” by pinning Nicki as the “bully” and Taylor as the “victim.” As for Taylor, she has yet to respond about the obvious racism in the music industry.

What are your thoughts on Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj’s alleged Twitter feud? Do you think black women are rarely awarded for their success? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.

[Images: Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images for TAS and Earl Gibson III/Getty Images for BET]

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