Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red is pregnant.
She seems pretty happy with it, but when she first announced her little bundle of joy, folks on the internet immediately did that thing they do when a young Black woman announces a pregnancy during her ascendancy to stardom: They began projecting their own insecurities and fears onto her.
Some have asked why she would get pregnant while her star is still shining so brightly. Others have predicted that her pregnancy and the subsequent birth of her child will be a career-ending situation. And then there are those who openly say she is making a “mistake.”
This isn’t the first time we have heard these things said about a young Black woman who has made the decision to become a mother.
Keke Palmer faced similar scrutiny when she announced her pregnancy. She has since had her son and continued to boss up like only Keke can, proving the naysayers wrong.
When Cardi B announced her first pregnancy just as her first album was beginning to blow up on the charts in 2018, people predicted it would be the end for her as well. It wasn’t. Cardi continues to put out chart-topping hit after chart-topping hit, and she has even given birth to her second child with her husband, rapper Offset from Migos.
Cardi performed on stage throughout her pregnancy, most notably on “Saturday Night Live,” where her pregnancy was officially “revealed” and confirmed.
Not even Serena Williams could escape that type of scrutiny when she became pregnant with her first child. Even with as great of an athlete as she is, people doubted her ability to bounce back onto the court after having a child, but she did. She even won the Australian Open while she was pregnant, and went on…
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