Here’s Why French Montana Hates Himself

French Montana hates himself, and he’s not alone.

Any Arab or Desi person who is anti-Black hates themselves because they wish they were White, and they aren’t. We see it in our mosques, and in our MSA’s. We continuously try to appease to White-standards, and in our efforts, we choose to distance ourselves from those who are opposite to Eurocentric beauty standards.

From his repeated use of the N-word, to his strange fetish of dating White women who try to be Black (see Kardashians and Iggy-Can’t-Rap), French Montana is as problematic as they come.

It took me a long time to understand that the anti-Blackness in my mosque and Islamic school growing up wasn’t because Blackness was wrong, but because the people who owned the school and ran the mosque hated the blood in their veins. I remember in school, people would talk about who colonized their countries as if it were something to be proud of. Or they would claim being mixed as a way of distancing themselves from the ethnicity they were with in an effort to be more-White.

By now, I’m sure you’ve all seen the anti-Black tweets by non other than that Moroccan guy who decided to name himself after his colonizers, AKA French Montana. I mean we all knew he was anti-Black. From his repeated use of the N-word, to his strange fetish of dating White women who try to be Black (see Kardashians and Iggy-Can’t-Rap), French Montana is as problematic as they come.

Just last week, he decided to attack a young Black girl on twitter who was literally just saying what we all knew – French is irrelevant.

The twitter user, who goes by @artdecoxxx, tweeted “The fact that French Montana thinks anyone cares about him.”

She didn’t tag him, so French had to have searched his name to find it, and this is how he responded:

Now while it’s not okay to speak to any woman that way, the fact that he chose to attack her hair, after dating a series of White women who have a habit of culturally appropriating black hair is wild. Like, doesn’t he know both Iggy and ALL of the Kardashians would give up their firstborns to be born with our nappy hair? It’s why they are so obsessed with imitating our cornrows and dreads – no one wants lifeless spaghetti on their heads.

But even with culture-vultures trying to be us, Black women are still criticized and called unprofessional for wearing their hair natural. Let’ break that down – Black women are literally told that the hair that comes out of their head makes them unprofessional and unattractive. It’s pretty violent, and cements European features as the only beauty standard, which is rooted in colonialism (and a lie, in case that wasn’t clear.)

French Montana is a non-Black rapper who is obsessed with Black culture and dating non-Black women who are equally obsessed with Black culture.

And for those who don’t think French’s comments were anti-Black, would he have called a non-Black woman nappy? One look at the twitter users profile makes it pretty obvious that her hair isn’t visibly nappy. It’s actually in braids, so you can’t tell. He used that word because she is Black, therefore it is anti-Black.

It’s important to note that this twitter user wasn’t the only person tweeting about how irrelevant French is. And if he was searching his name, why did he specifically choose to go after a young Black girl who had something to say? Because here’s a compilation of other twitter users who’ve said pretty similar things:

So after all these people decide to insult him, he chooses to racially attack the one Black woman whose tweet he comes across. And he’s still trying to say he’s not anti-Black? French Montana is a non-Black rapper who is obsessed with Black culture and dating non-Black women who are equally obsessed with Black culture. This is the problem with appropriation. The same people who copy our culture, art and aesthetic then decide to use anti-Black language against us. Cool – French wants to use the N-word, and then insult a Black woman on her blackness? We need to call this behavior out.

This is why it’s problematic when women like the Kardashians decide to wear cornrows, dreadlocks and copy other elements of Black culture. They will be seen as “trendy” or “edgy” where as a Black woman wearing her hair in the same styles would be seen as “nappy” and “ghetto.” It’s literally our hair styles, and we are not allowed to claim them. There would be no cultural appropriation if racial inequality was not an issue, and that does not seem to be the case.

He tried to defend himself by saying he had a Black son, and that he was from Africa – but guess what… slave-owners also had Black children.

There are layers of anti-Blackness in fashion, media and in music. And when we call it out, we are told we are being sensitive. Black women are hyper-sexualized, insulted by misogynsists, degraded for being Black, and then told they are being sensitive and overly emotional for demanding to be treated with respect. It kinda sounds like men like French think it’s their right to oppress marginalized women.

He tried to defend himself by saying he had a Black son, and that he was from Africa – but guess what… slave-owners also had Black children. And anti-Blackness is incredibly prevalent in North Africa because of White-Arab colonialism, especially in his native Morocco – so what is he getting at?

Let’s be real, if you’re Desi or Arab and are anti-Black, you hate yourself. There’s no being gentle about it. You’re not White, but try so hard to align yourself with “whiteness,” and then realize that they don’t want you either.

Remember Adam Saleh? I remember when I watched the video of him crying on a plane after he was kicked off, and I actually laughed. Here is this man who calls Black people abeed (slaves) in his videos, crying about being discriminated against. Like, is he not intelligent enough to see how hypocritical he is being?

It’s the same with MSA’s and mosques that have conversations on Islamophobia, while allowing anti-Black members to be active members in the mosque.

“But sister, there is no racism is Islam.” And hey, you’re right, because if you’re racist, you’re not Muslim.