Nonprofit Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium recently published an open letter addressed to rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
Put up on their official website, the collective of Black women in philanthropy’s letter addresses the comments that have been made on Megan’s 2020 shooting and condemn violence against women in general.
The letter was signed by the likes of musician Ethel Cain, #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, Allisa Findley of the Sisters of the Movement coalition against violence and Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, amongst others.
Beginning with praise for Megan’s successful career and talent, the letter goes on to reprimand others for the public abuse they subjected her to following the shooting and compliments the rapper’s strength during these times.
“You may be a boss, the ‘hot girl coach,’ and a bonafide superstar, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t experience pain. No one is too ‘bad,’ too famous, too powerful to feel hurt,” said the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium in their statement. “You’ve had to navigate this deeply difficult experience in the public eye, and while you’ve managed to stand strong and to keep showing up to work in spite of it all, it can’t be understated how unfair it is that you’re in this position to begin with.”
The public letter continues to criticize those who downplayed the seriousness of the event while also drawing attention to the high rate of violence against women.
The Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium ended with a thank you to the rapper for her involvement in the Consortium’s “Joy Is Our Journey Dream Bus Tour” and for her mental health efforts.
“You have remained committed to the focus of mental health and well being in our community even when your own has been minimized, marginalized, and deemphasized,” read the letter. “We want you to know that you are important and you matter to us and to millions of women around the globe. Your life matters. Your work matters. Your joy matters. You deserve joy. We stand with you.”
The open letter comes after rapper Drake included a line about Megan and the shooting in his track “Circo Loco” on Her Loss, his new album with 21 Savage.
In the song, Drake alleges that Megan “lied about getting shot.”
Megan has previously responded to the rumors surrounding her shooting and opened up about the shooting in a conversation with Rolling Stone.
“In some kind of way I became the villain,” she said per the magazine. “And I don’t know if people don’t take it seriously because I seem strong. I wonder if it’s because of the way I look. Is it because I’m not light enough? Is it that I’m not white enough? Am I not the shape? The height? Because I’m not petite? Do I not seem like I’m worth being treated like a woman?”
As of yet, the trial for her shooting is still ongoing with her assailant, rapper Tory Lanez recently put under house arrest until his trial on the 28th.
