Cardi B Speaks Out in 2025 on Her Black and Afro-Caribbean Woman Identity

Editor's Note: This story was originally published in 2021 and has been updated to reflect Cardi B's recent comments on her Afro-Caribbean roots. 

Cardi B once again asserted her proud Afro-Caribbean heritage. When questioned on the stand during her 2025 civil assault lawsuit, Cardi was asked if she considered herself "African American." She clarified that she considers herself "Afro-Caribbean."

In interviews this year prior to the release of her 2025 album, Am I the Drama?, discussing her culture and extended family has also resonated with others who share her heritage.

Back in 2021, Cardi B chose to speak out about her Afro-Latino roots. This follows previous online discussions questioning her Blackness.

Over on her Twitter account, the rapper with Trinidadian and Dominican roots tweeted, "Let me do this shit again." It's not clear why she decided to get into this topic this week, but what came after this tweet were images of her maternal grandmother, aunts, her brother, and her uncle. There was also a photo featuring her mother.

In another tweet, she also shares an image of a previous Vibe Vita cover written by Marjua Estevez. The cover story from 2016 ran with photos from Cardi's Dominican grandmother's apartment in Washington Heights. When she shared this post, the caption read, "Before I even got my teeth fix, I was talking about my roots." She also wrote, "Not just cause of fame. Thank you, carry on."

Cardi also posted an old video where she declared that she was half-Spanish. In an additional tweet, she addressed not knowing the right terminology at the time. "Back then, I didn’t really used the right terms. I haven’t always been super woke," she wrote. "I should have said half Hispanic cause me saying I’m Spanish don’t make sense cause i[t’]s a language. As we get older, we learn the terms better."

Nearly three years ago, she candidly spoke about what bothers her about conversations about race with Zendaya, "One thing that always bothers me is that people know so little about my culture. We are Caribbean people, and a lot of people be attacking me because they feel like I don’t be saying that I’m Black," she said. "Some people want to decide if you’re Black or not, depending on your skin complexion, because they don’t understand Caribbean people or our culture."

In 2019, social media users inquired if the "WAP" rapper was qualified to declare, "n*gga," and another tweeted that she's "never accepted being Black." To the latter, she responded by tweeting: "How do you act like a black woman? How do black women act?"

She also dug a bit deeper and added that same day that in the past she has shared videos speaking about her heritage. "But the crazy shit is when I did videos like this people used to say are you black “but you speak Spanish so I just started saying I’m carribean cause had to always argue and then people started claiming that I don’t claim my blackness.Its like it’s always a L."

In what seems like a penultimate post, she wrote a few final words for fans and naysayers who have questioned her lack of awareness surrounding her race and ethnic background. "It’s time for ya to pick up a book," she wrote. "Your ignorance at this point is a choice."