It’s been a terrible week for the Black community as we’ve suffered the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of reckless and brutal police officers, as well as the suspicious alleged suicide of an unnamed Black man in Atlanta who was found hanging from a tree in the city’s popular Piedmont Park. With so much death and social unrest regarding the pervasive race issues in our nation, many Black celebrities are showing solidarity with their community with public posts of sadness or empowerment. However, rising rapper Fetty Wap recently drew fire from the Black community when he posted a tweet in support of “All Lives Matter” instead of “Black Lives Matter.”
As previously reported, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was created in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of Black teenager Trayvon Martin. The movement was founded by Black activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi and has served to promote the fact that the lives of Blacks are as valuable as White Americans.
However, after the hashtag and movement were created, White Twitter users created the hashtag #AllLivesMatter as a form of cultural erasure in response to #BlackLivesMatter and claimed that #BlackLivesMatter was racist and wasn’t inclusive of all people.
Well, it looks like Fetty Wap may not have gotten the memo on this issue because yesterday he tweeted and then deleted a post that read “My kids are Mixed … #AllLivesMatter.”
Understandably, it didn’t take long for Black Twitter to take Fetty to task for his tweet and many users quickly bashed him for his post while others chose to educate him on the origins of #BlackLivesMatter vs. #AllLivesMatter. Afterward, Fetty apologized to his fans for the post.
Fetty then further apologized on his Instagram page.
“I apologized a to a thousand ppl because I didn’t fully understand the hashtag I [sic] really sorry to those who I offended … on my life I would never disrespect nobody family I ain’t better than no one I just was speakin for my kids not knowing the full meaning I can take criticism, but I’m man enough to apologize,” Fetty captioned the photo.
What do you think of Fetty’s post and apology? Let us know in the comments.
