On her Instagram Live about three years ago, rapper Cardi B made a controversial statement that has blown up. Because of this video, Cardi B’s integrity and values has been brought into question, not to mention the legality of the things she confessed to doing. Can anyone just do anything because they’re in a bad place?

In the Live, Cardi B talked about how she used to drug and rob men, which has caused an uproar on social media. The hashtag #survivingcardib arose, similar to the title of Surviving R. Kelly, a documentary about a man who committed many acts of sexual abuse. People on Twitter and Instagram have been trying to “cancel” Cardi B, and bring up the point that if a man were to confess to drugging and robbing people, there would be an entirely different backlash.

Luckily, Cardi addressed this, and said that she doesn’t want to glorify robbing and crime, and because she has owned up to it, she can now move on with her life and be a “better person for my family”.

Still, the question of whether she should pay for her crimes is lingering. Drugging and robbing people is clearly a federal offense, and though it happened far into Cardi B’s past, many people believe that she should still face the consequences of her actions. In addition, is this on the same spectrum as how men are treated in similar situations, such as R. Kelly, and other public figures who face extremely angry public reactions? If a man was in this situation, would he be treated the same way? In our world today, the answer would most likely be no.

“Theft is theft, no matter the gender who commits it, they should be punished the same way” said Sujana Sridhar (‘21)

Many posts on Instagram and many news stations have commented on it and decided that Cardi B is now an inherently bad person, and listening to her music and supporting her is supporting this crime.

Cardi also says that the man she was involved with “knew what I was doing” which is a bit confusing and misleading, and sounds like the men she had relationships with knew that she would do this, drug and rob men, and not that the men that she was drugging and robbing knew that they were going to get robbed.

Caption: Some of the comments on Cardi B’s last post regarding her scandal.