A transphobic meme was posted to Cardi B’s official Facebook page, and the rapper is blaming a “former team member”.
The meme features a cartoon character looking out a window with accompanying text: “I hope nobody sees this Tranny leave my house”. A caption from the Cardi page included crying laughing emojis and a skull. It has since been deleted.
Cardi later tweeted: “It’s come to my attention there have been offensive posts made on what used to be my Facebook page.”
“For the past year and a half a FORMER team member has been the only one with access to the account.”
Despite Cardi’s claims of limited account access, the Facebook page has been actively posting her live shows and appearances.
People were swift to call out the transphobia online. The musician – real name Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar – has responded to criticism for use of trans slurs earlier in the year.
In a previous live video she said: “I didn’t know that was a word that you cannot use, especially because my trans friends use it and growing up, my parents never told me that that was a bad word. You know, there’s bad words that your parents teach you that you’re not supposed to say. Nobody taught us that. Nobody taught us that in our school.”
Cardi has also previously defended her husband Offset’s homophobic lyrics. The Migos rapper later apologised for the lyric.
In the last year alone, at least 20 trans people have been killed in the U.S, the majority being trans people of colour.