In this op-ed, culture director Danielle Kwateng examines the public discourse around Megan Thee Stallion's July 12 shooting.
It's been almost two weeks since Megan Thee Stallion was shot. On Monday, the rapper went on Instagram Live to address the public for the first time since the shooting happened. In a nine-minute video, the 25-year-old thanked fans for their outpouring of love as she's been healing from the incident.
"I see… a lot of people that have been very supportive and sending prayers, and I just really appreciate that," she said, as music played softly in the background. "I saw the hotties doing a lot of things, like writing letters on Tumblr and DMing me all the time, and I just want to say thank y’all so much, because y’all have really been the ones helping me get through this.”
She also shared a little bit about the incident that occurred on Sunday, July 12, in Los Angeles. "I was shot in both of my feet," Megan said, before taking a deep breath. “I had to get surgery to get the bullets taken out. And it was super scary.” She later noted, "Thank God that the bullets didn’t touch bones; they didn’t break tendons. I know my momma or my daddy, my granny, had to be looking out for me with that one, because where the bullets hit at it missed everything."
In the days after Megan was shot, there was a clear delineation of thoughts concerning the incident, which is still being investigated. On one end there were fans who were genuinely concerned about her welfare and deeply invested in figuring out who shot her; on the other end were jesters, people, she said, who sought to make light of a violent occurrence. "I ain’t never seen so many grown-ass motherf**kin’ men chime in some shit that wasn’t they motherf**kin’ business in the first motherf**kin’ place,” she said.
Initially, Megan simply asked for empathy. "It might be funny to y’all on the internet and just another messy topic for you to talk about, but this is my real life, and I’m real-life hurt and traumatized," she said. A week later, in response to all the comments and chatter, she made another video to remind everyone that her humanity is not a punch line.
Media outlets and public figures — the gatekeepers of information — should take some responsibility and not feed speculation and spread rumors; instead, Megan's industry peers spoke about the incident with jokes and memes.
Rapper-turned-podcast-host Joe Budden talked about Megan on his show with his two cohosts: As the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Who Shot Ya?" played in the background, the men laughed and shunned Tory Lanez for his alleged involvement with the shooting. Tory, a 27-year-old rapper from Canada, was arrested at the scene of the incident on a felony gun charge but has not been charged in relation to the shooting. "I hate to see pull-up on pull-up beef. I hate to see pull-up on pull-up crime," Budden began; the group later speculated, without any evidence, that Megan and Lanez had an intimate relationship.
That same week, 50 Cent posted a now-deleted meme using a Boyz n the Hood reference with Lanez and Megan’s likenesses. After seeing Megan’s video, he apologized, saying on Twitter and Instagram, “Damn, I didn’t think this shit was real. It sounded so crazy. I’m glad you're feeling better and I hope you can accept my apology. I posted a meme that was floating around. I wouldn’t have done that if I knew you was really hurt. Sorry.”
Then model and reality-TV star Draya Michele spoke about the incident on the Wine and Weed podcast: "I want you to like me so much you shoot me in the foot too," she said. “We're talking about 24-year-old Meg," Michele said of Megan, who's 25. "I wish I was 24 and could go through this type of shit. This shit is fun.”
In 2016, while in Europe for Paris Fashion Week, Kim Kardashian West was robbed at gunpoint while staying at the Hôtel de Pourtalès. In addition to widespread concern about her well-being, there were thoroughly investigated reports that examined the crime from all angles. Kardashian West took a three-month social media break after the scare, while people continued to speak publicly about the crime, accused her of staging the incident (which she denied), and used her visibility in the public eye as justification for the incident. By no means was she excused from being publicly antagonized, but she never broke her silence to ask for compassion. So why did Megan?
Social media is an important forum for critical thought, but its danger runs along with the same congruence as its appeal: public discourse rooted in disinformation and false narratives. False narratives feed negative perceptions of people we know nothing about. Inaccurate headlines reinforce the very same stereotypes that get Black and brown people killed.
"Imagine being 25, and you don’t have both of your parents," Megan said, recalling her deceased parents through tears. "My momma was my best friend. She... you know I’m still not really over that. So you try to fill your space with a bunch of people that you think is making you happy. It’s a lot. I just feel like I was moving too fast. I wasn’t taking enough time for myself. I thought I was ready to be around a bunch of motherf**kers. I thought I was ready to give good energy to other people. And other people weren’t ready to give good energy to me."
Black women’s vulnerability to gun violence has long been a top-of-mind topic. Historically, they have experienced intimate-partner violence at higher rates than any group other than Indigenous women. So, considering Sandra Bland's death has yet to be thoroughly investigated and the officers who shot Breonna Taylor are on administrative leave, that tells me that not only is law enforcement apathetic about Black women’s existence, so too are the general public and media.
Megan said she’s “alive and well” — she plans to keep her energy “good.” The “Savage” rapper is not going to let the ugliness of the world taint her joy. Her experience reminds me of an excerpt from Feminista Jones’ 2019 book, Reclaiming Our Space: “Sometimes we truly feel like we are all we have,” the writer wrote about Black women. “That has increased the importance and impact of digital spaces not only as tools for activists but as a place to be heard and supported.” If we really want to support and protect Black women, the work starts by listening, having compassion, and giving the space for Black women to tell their own stories, free of cheap internet humor.