Rapper Lil Baby has sparked social media debate with his views on racism.
“Black people are racist too,” the 25-year-old told Rolling Stone. “Racist means to be just to your race. To me, a racist is someone who treats a different race than theirs a different way than they would treat theirs.
“I feel like if you’re a Black person and you treat all Black people one way and all white people one way, you’re racist.”
Lil Baby, whose real name is Dominique Jones, said he does not consider himself a racist. “I give a white person a chance to talk and actually we get into it before I can say I don’t like you or not.
“And I feel the same way about a Black person. You ain’t gon’ be my buddy just ’cause you’re Black. Just straight up.”
The rap star, who released “The Bigger Picture” in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, also suggested its unfair to label all cops racist.
“Just ’cause you work in a racist system doesn’t mean you racist,” he said. “Damn near every system that got a job is a racist system. You know what I mean?”
On Twitter, reaction has been mixed.
"Explain to me HOW Black people can be racist in a country that we hold zero power in?? Ill wait ...," read one tweet. Another read: "Whew someone offer Lil Baby a book on racism. Like we don’t came way too far in this struggle for n****s to be publicly saying black people can be racist."
But, others tweets include "Lil baby just said black people can be racist... did people actually think they can’t be racist? Lmao" and "Lil Baby said black people can be racist. Y’all believe it now that someone famous said it? Because I BEEN telling y’all."