The first time that I heard a song by Washington Heights-born, South Bronx-raised Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar Cephus bka Cardi B, I loathed it. The first time that I heard her speak, I was like “ugh”. Before you come at me with torches and pitchforks, allow me to explain the reason why I felt this way and the reason for my change of mind.

The issue I had with Cardi B wasn’t an issue with her; it wasn’t personal. The reason why I felt the way I did was because I had once attributed the inability to speak “properly” with a lack of intelligence (which is an assumption many people wrongly make about speech). I didn’t think that Cardi was an idiot, but I did think of her as just another “hood chick” who, like other rappers, got a little talent and made a career for herself in rap music. Combined with her past as a stripper, and with being a rapper and all, I became prejudiced against her. I never spoke maliciously about her, though (I’m not that petty). I simply didn’t care, writing her off as somebody I cared nothing about and whose music I thought of as meh. My dislike of Cardi and her music was nothing more than a silly, inconsequential thought in my head. Besides, who the fuck cares what I think (certainly not Cardi B)?

One day, however, Cardi B disabused me of my insensitive and callous opinion; drawing me into her orbit like a planet around the sun.

I’ve been a huge follower of former Vermont senator Bernie Sanders since his first run for president and I’ve never wanted anybody to win the presidential election more than him. I had heard that Sanders and Cardi B were going to have a Q&A at The TEN Nail Bar in Detroit, obviously, about politics and the upcoming election, and with eyebrows raised, eyes cartoonishly bulging, and mouth to the floor, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. There was no way I would miss this, I laughed. I just knew that it would be a spectacle and I fully expected Cardi B to have no idea of what she was talking about, that she would (figuratively) fall flat on her face. But that never happened and from the moment she began speaking, I was utterly engrossed in what she had to say.

That I was impressed with the interview would be an understatement. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t listening to how Cardi B expressed her concerns but listening to what she was speaking about. The conversation between her and Bernie about education, police brutality, wages, immigration, and so forth, was impressive. What astonished me was that the conversation had happened at all as it said to me that Cardi is not only aware of the needs of the kinds of neighborhoods comparable to the one she grew up in, but that she was aware of the politics of poverty and how it affected those communities. That both Cardi B and Senator Bernie Sanders agreed to have this meeting, with both sides understanding the importance of such a discourse. This is the kind of thing that should happen more. It’s important that people of color have someone from “the hood” who has attained a certain level of celebrity and wealth, speak with a presidential candidate about issues that affect the less-than-privileged, while their fans who reside in underserved neighborhoods watch. It makes them feel, I believe, that they are a part of the voting process and that their vote matters.

"Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse."

— African proverb

From that day forward, I would eventually become a fan of her music, but more importantly, I began to have a deep admiration for who she was as a woman, a woman of color, and a human being. You would think that someone like me who was once an activist and who possesses a vast knowledge of African and African American history and politics would have more compassion and understanding for people who live in the hood. After all, our ghettoes are the result of racist policies that were intended to keep us oppressed. I was fortunate to have grown up in an environment where learning was encouraged, but in the hood, survival takes precedence. When you’re struggling to feed your family, shopping for books is a luxury. I and my siblings attended Catholic school, and my father had built a library in our home with encyclopedias, medical books, dictionaries, and literature. I am sure that then, as now, there weren’t many African American households that could afford to do what my parents did for us (even if they were fortunate to have both parents in the home). Ghettoes weren’t designed (and they most certainly were designed) to be places conducive to learning and advancing in society and it’s nothing short of a miracle that anyone makes it out and is able to achieve any level of success in the world. Yet, despite this, there are children in our neighborhoods who possess an innate desire to learn and to understand how the world (and the universe at large) works, the things they will never be taught in the classrooms. They’ve realized that the pursuit of this knowledge is the kind that will help them to understand why they live in such conditions while others do not and how to change these conditions. Cardi B was one of these children, growing up to be (in my mind) an intellectual and humanitarian.

The term “intellectual” has many definitions as it does opinions as to what it actually means. I believe that an intellectual is one who is driven by the triumvirate of all learning: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Intelligence, after all, is not marked simply by the possession of a vast wealth of data; that is called “education”, which, for the most part, is useless. Becoming intellectual starts with the desire to know. In the African proverb quoted above, it is implied that ignorance is the absence of a desire to know. For the intellectual, learning is a passion. It is that passion that I hear when Cardi B speaks on matters of import. She is a woman who is unafraid to ask questions. She’s also not afraid to admit when she’s wrong. Some of her comments on politics may come off as somewhat naive, but when it comes to the typical American and their knowledge of world affairs, that’s not at all surprising. Cardi will make mistakes. She has already, and she’ll make more. But she has the presence of mind to acknowledge when she is wrong and to correct herself accordingly. For that alone, she has my respect.

Yes, I respect Cardi B. There are women in my life who are engineers, CEOs, and scientists. I have a deep love and admiration for them all. I may not know Cardi B personally, but I feel the same way about her as well. That she’s a feminist is something that I learned about her recently, and it endeared me more to this woman. I’m sure there will be many who disagree with my labeling Cardi as an intellectual, but even if you believe that she isn’t, you can not deny her potential to be one.

It’s been months since I thought about writing this article, so I have no memory of what inspired me to do it. Regardless, I think that it’s only fitting that I finish and publish it on the first day of Women’s History Month. Cardi B made history last December as the only woman to have received three diamond single certifications. In addition to having partnered with Facebook, Playboy, and Reebok, she launched her own business in the form of a vodka-laced whipped cream called “Whipshots”. She is an accomplished woman.

There will always be the naysayers (such as that cantankerous caterwauling conservative cretin, Candace Owens), but Cardi B is undeterred in both her pursuit of knowledge and her pursuit of greater business opportunities. More than that, she’s a beautiful human being, and no one can ever take that from her.

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