Rapper Mulatto is gearing up to announce her new rap moniker after facing heaving criticism from fans who deem it to be offensive.
The term mulatto derives from the Mexican and Portuguese root word “mula,” meaning mule. A mule is the offspring of a horse and a donkey. The term was initially used as a slur to describe biracial children during slavery.
When the backlash first started, Mulatto defended the name, citing her biracial heritage. Fans then threatened to boycott her music, causing the rapper to have a change of heart.
During a recent interview with Tallie Spence, she reflected on the controversy:
“You know, you might know your intentions, but these are strangers who don’t know you, never even met you in person. So you gotta hear each other out, and if you know those aren’t your intentions and that’s how it’s being perceived, it’s like why not make a change or alter it?” she explained. “For me, it was the name. So now I’m like, okay, my intentions was to never glorify being mulatto. So if that’s how it’s being perceived and people think I’m saying, ‘Oh, I’m better because I’m mulatto’ or, ‘My personality trait is mulatto,’ then I need to change the matter at hand.”
Recently, Danileigh caught heat after she previewed a snippet of her (now hopefully scrapped) track, “Yellow Bone.” Fans were offended to Danileigh’s ode to light-skinned women, especially considering Danileigh is not a Black woman.
“I would say I see both sides because me being an artist, I see how our intentions can get flipped because I genuinely believe her intentions was not to offend anyone or to like, up one skin color and put down another skin color. I feel like her intentions wasn’t that.”
She concluded: “I know you just gotta be more careful in times like this because it is such a sensitive subject […] that might not have been your intentions but the apology and stuff is still needed because of just knowing the sensitivity of the subject matter right now with the Black Lives Matter movement and colorism and police brutality, and just the state of the world right now. I feel like everything’s just at an all time high so you just gotta be more careful, I would say.”
