Cardi B Forced To Apologize For Goddess Durga Pose After Indians Slam For Culture Appropriation
Cardi B recently appeared on the cover of Footwear News magazine, posing as Goddess Durga with multiple arms stretched out around her from her shoulders and holding a bright red shoe in her hands, while promoting her first line of sneakers with Reebok, and as expected Indians saw red!
The singer was slammed on social media with many Indian users claiming that she had insulted the Hindu Goddess, while others took offense to her outfit.
This resulted in Cardi B being forced to apologize to her Indian fans.
In a video message on her Instagram page, the musician said, “When I did the shoot, the creatives told me I was going to represent a Goddess; that she represents strength, femininity, and liberation, and that’s something I love and I’m all about.”
“And though it was dope, if people think I’m offending their culture or their religion I want to say that was not my intent. I do not like offending anyone’s religion; I wouldn’t like it if someone did it to my religion,” she added.
Cardi B maintained that her intention was not to disrespect anyone’s god.
“When people dress as Virgin Mary and Jesus, as long as they do it in a beautiful, graceful way. But I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful; maybe I should have done my research. I’m sorry, I can’t change the past but I will do more research for the future,” she added.
Footwear News had initially shared Cardi B’s cover on their Instagram and wrote that it was intended as a “homage” to Goddess Durga.
Their caption also compared Cardi B to the Hindu Goddess for being a “dominant female voice at a critical time.” The magazine then deleted the post and issued an apology via People in which they promised to be more sensitive towards the use of religious imagery in future issues.
“We realize we were not considerate of certain cultural and religious perspectives and how this could be perceived as deeply offensive. We take full accountability for this oversight and we apologize. It is important we learn from this example and are sensitive to this sort of religious imagery when creative discussions are taking place in the future,” read the statement.
Footwear News has since replaced the cover with an alternative photo of Cardi B from the same photoshoot.
