Rihanna’s European leg of her Loud tour is shaping up to be quite newsworthy— but not for good reason. The 23-year-old Talk that Talk songstress is at the center of two separate controversies both involving racially insensitive insults.
Over the weekend, Rihanna had a run in with a man she described as “the most racist c**t ever,” while in a Lisbon, Portugal hotel. According to reports, the man insulted the singer with racist remarks about black women.
This did not sit well with the quick tongued Rihanna. The singer shot off a few quips before calling the hotel manager for assistance. She then took to her Twitter account where she said:
…”This man said the craziest sh*t abt black women called us dogs, sl*ts, we don’t look like sh*t, we don’t belong in the same hotels….needless to say, the #ni**a in me came out! Bajan accent and all…”
The singer quickly returned to her rock star ways and partied the night away in celebration of tour. But, another controversy is brewing.
According to online reports, Jackie magazine — a Dutch publication out of the Netherlands — has sparked outrage by referring to Rihanna as a Ni**a Bi**h in a headline.
In a recent issue of the fashion magazine, the publication uses inflammatory language to describe the superstar. In an excerpt, the article says:
She has street cred, she has a ghetto ass and she has a golden throat. Rihanna, the good girl gone bad, is the ultimate n***a b***h and displays that gladly, and for her that means: what’s on can come off. If that means she’ll be on stage half naked, then so be it. But Dutch winters aren’t like Jamaican ones, so pick a clothing style in which your daughter can resist minus ten. No to the big sunglasses and the porn heels, and yes to the tiger print, pink shizzle and everything that glitters. Now let’s hope she won’t beat anybody up at daycare.
Jackie Magazine editor-in-chief Eva Hoeke took to the publication’s Facebook page after readers expressed their disgust and outrage. According to Hoeke, the article was meant to be a joke but quickly turned into a bad one. In her apology Hoeke said:
…While the author meant no harm — the title of the article was intended as a joke — it was a bad joke, to say the least. And that slipped through my, the editor-in-chief’s, fingers. Stupid, painful and sucks for all concerned. The author has been addressed on it, and now I can only ensure that these terms will no longer end up in the magazine. Furthermore I hope that you all believe there was absolutely no racist motive behind the choice of words. It was stupid, it was naive to think that this was an acceptable form of slang — you hear it all the time on tv and radio, then your idea of what is normal apparently shifts — but it was especially misguided: there was no malice behind it. We make our magazine with love, energy and enthusiasm, and it can sometimes happen that someone is out of line. And then you can only do one thing: apologize. And hope that others wish to accept it.
Rihanna has yet to make a comment about the Dutch magazine’s article.