What the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case says about the way America treats Black women

If we are ever to move forward as a country, 2023 must be a time for America to reconsider its relationship with Black women.

Black women, after all, have been mothers to America’s children, shoulders for America to cry on, and a deep and abiding source of American wisdom. Yet Black women have consistently been disregarded, disrespected, and treated with disdain. Need proof? Look no further than the case of Megan Thee Stallion, the Grammy-winning rapper who was shot in 2020 by another hip-hop star, Tory Lanez, who could face up to 22 years in prison after being convicted last week.

Megan Thee Stallion, whose given name is Megan Pete, testified during Lanez’s trial that he became enraged when she disparaged his musical talent during an argument as they left a pool party hosted by Kylie Jenner. She said that she exited the vehicle they were in, and tried to walk away, but Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, shouted, “Dance!” as he fired multiple rounds toward her feet. Bloodied from the bullet fragments, she got back in the vehicle, which was later stopped by police.

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In emotional testimony at the trial, Pete said she initially told the officers who found Lanez’s gun in the car that she’d stepped on glass. She did so, not to protect herself, but to protect her attacker. “At the time, we are at the height of police brutality,” she testified. “I felt like if I said this man has just shot me, they might shoot first and ask questions later.”

Think about that. Pete, a 27-year-old whose music is at turns raunchy and insightful, thought first about protecting a Black man from the same kind of violence he’d just inflicted on her. That’s what Black women have always done. They’ve considered the well-being of others, often putting those considerations before their own wants and needs. They have often suffered for doing so, and Pete suffered, too.

Pete was targeted by social media trolls who labeled her a snitch when she finally told the truth about the shooting. Others concocted misinformation aimed at discrediting her. Some disparaged her dead parents with cruel, merciless taunts. Fellow music stars Drake and 21 Savage seemingly accused her of lying about the shooting in their song ”Circo Loco” when Drake said that an unnamed woman “lie ‘bout gettin’ shots, but she still a stallion.”

In essence, Pete was treated like an object, like a thing without feelings, or a person without worth. Many have linked her treatment to a phenomenon called misogynoir, a phrase coined by the scholar Moya Bailey in 2008 to describe a blend of racism and sexism that is routinely heaped upon Black women. Perhaps that defines it, but for me, the ugliest thing about Pete’s treatment is that it was carried out in large part by Black people.

This was not Meghan Markle being targeted by a white royal family whose generational wealth was tied to slavery and colonization. No, this was Megan Pete, from Houston, being dragged on social media by people who looked like her, lived like her, and came from the same kinds of places that molded her.

The hatred she endured for standing up and speaking the truth was so thorough, so utterly traumatizing, that Pete, whose net worth is a reported $8 million, said the pain was too much to bear.

“I wish he would’ve just shot and killed me if I knew I was going to have to go through this torture,” she said during tearful testimony at trial.

The torture of being victimized and not believed is far too familiar to Black women. It’s why convicted child pornographer R. Kelly’s victims were ignored until the R&B star’s crimes were laid bare in a documentary series called Surviving R. Kelly. It’s why the claims of missing Black women in Kansas City were ignored until a beaten and emaciated woman escaped from a man who was allegedly holding her in a basement in a nearby suburb.

We must do better. That’s why, in 2023, I am doing something new. I’m making a New Year’s resolution. I resolve to always stand up for Black women in America — just as they’ve always stood up for us all.