Recently, a video surfaced from 3 years ago depicting the rapper Cardi B talking about her past. Specifically, she talks about how she used to drug and rob men when she was a stripper. She basically describes luring men to hotels before drugging them and robbing them. In the video she defended herself throughout the backlash, claiming that she did what she needed to do to survive. Surprisingly, many people have taken this mindset to heart and have defended Cardi. Even more surprisingly is that no criminal charges have been filed.

At first, Cardi seemed to think that nothing was going to come from the video. As time went on, though, the mainstream media got a hold of it. The internet also started to be outspoken about the issue, creating a hashtag called, “#SurvingCardi”, based on the “Surviving Kelly” hashtag and documentary.

Once she realized the backlash was not going away any time soon, she made a lengthy instagram post in which she defends her past actions. Interestingly, she also claims that the men she was drugging and robbing were “willing and aware.” This doesn’t fit into what the video said and also doesn’t make a lot of logical sense.

The aspect of the situation that the internet has tended to focus on is that fact that it doesn’t seem as though Cardi will face charges. Some cite this as a double standard between women as perpetrators of sexual assault and violence. They say that if a man had admitted to drugging and robbing women, he would already be in prison. I have to agree with them. For example, Brett Kavanaugh was taken to court and made a public spectacle because of something that supposedly happened in the 80s. This is all despite the fact that he never went on video and gave a full confession like Cardi did. Another example is Rick Ross, who used lyrics about putting molly in a girl’s drink in one his songs. Those lyrics lost him endorsements and greatly damaged his career.

Cardi B deserves something negative to happen to her career because of this video. If not, this situation would reveal a glaring double standard that needs to be amended.

Another issue brought up is the use of implicit or criminal lyrics in other rappers’ songs. Some say that if Cardi needs to be charged, then so do people who put their supposed criminal activities in lyrics. The problem is that these two situations are not the same. Cardi gave a confession that wasn’t in a song. Whether the other rappers really commit those crimes or simply say they do is up for debate, but there is no doubt in my mind that Cardi has drugged and robbed men.

I think using survival as an excuse to commit crimes is disgusting, and the fact that some people seem to be buying it is even worse. There is no excuse for drugging and robbing people. There needs to be some repercussions.