"Miley, What's Good?"

The biggest takeaway from last night's laughably horrendous VMA's was definitely Nicki Minaj calling Miley Cyrus out on her bullshit after winning Best Hip-Hop Video.

For those who may not understand why Minaj did what she did, you need not look further than Cyrus' interview about the VMA's after it was announced she was hosting.

You can read the full interview here, but the part that we're most interested in, is Cyrus' comments about the exchange between Taylor Swift and Minaj earlier this summer:

"I didn’t follow it. You know what I always say? Not that this is jealousy, but jealousy does the opposite of what you want it to — that’s a yoga mantra. People forget that the choices that they make and how they treat people in life affect you in a really big way. If you do things with an open heart and you come at things with love, you would be heard and I would respect your statement. But I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it. And it’s not anger like, “Guys, I’m frustrated about some things that are a bigger issue.' You made it about you. Not to sound like a bitch, but that’s like, “Eh, I didn’t get my V.M.A.' If you want to make it about race, there’s a way you could do that. But don’t make it just about yourself. Say: 'This is the reason why I think it’s important to be nominated. There’s girls everywhere with this body type.' What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite." 

There are many reasons why Cyrus' critique of Minaj is inappropriate, namely that Cyrus (a white female) is telling Minaj (a woman of color) how to "tastefully" discuss racial issues within the music industry. It's especially inappropriate when you examine Cyrus' laundry list worth of instances where she has appropriated black culture for her own personal gain (she wore cornrows to the VMA's last night, guys). Instead of staying out of it, as she encouraged Minaj to do, she inserted herself into a conversation that had nothing to do with her, dismissed Minaj's comments to nothing more than "jealousy". 

That Cyrus could stand on the stage and don cornrows (and be applauded for it), and make references to the 'mammy' figure, was enough disrespect to the black community without her prior offenses. And not surprisingly, the media is lambasting Minaj for "attacking" and "lashing out at" Cyrus. Never mind that Cyrus started this entire thing, and never mind that Minaj simply asked Miley to expand on what she had said before. 

If you are one of the people who feel Nicki "attacked" Miley, you are a part of the problem. There was no problem with her critiques of a very racist music industry. Remember it was Taylor Swift who went and made it about her, but Miley trying to speak over Nicki and tell her how to speak properly about issues that don't even affect her, is the very essence of white feminism. Cyrus totally missed the point in stacking it up as if Minaj cared about the award. Rather, Minaj was frustrated over the continual exclusion over PoC and people with unconventional body types in favor of white artists. 

No one said it better than Miley when she said,  "I don't know" when first asked about the incident. Well Miss Cyrus, if you don't know, then don't speak. Point. Blank. Period. 

Totally priceless, however, is Miley's face the second Minaj called her out. At least we'll always have this.