#WowTrina, #NotTrina trend after rapper calls protesters 'animals that escaped from zoo': 'You're despicable'
Hashtags such as #WowTrina, #NotTrina and #NowTrina started trending after rapper Trina equated the protesters of George Floyd's death with "animals" which had "escaped from a zoo."
The Miami rapper got herself in hot waters after urging Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez to start the curfew early while speaking to Trick Daddy on 99 Jamz Radio. The current curfew is from 9 pm to 6 am "They need to make the curfew at 6 pm," Trina said, lamenting that 9 pm was too late. "Keep everybody off the street, these animals off the streets, that are running around in Miami-Dade County acting like they have escaped from a zoo. Lock them up at 5 pm so the streets can be nice and clean, that's how I feel."
She then directed her fury toward the rioters and looters who were destroying businesses all over the country as she referred to a friend who had their business destroyed by violent protests. “We can’t bring back nobody's lives that have been taken away, whether it’s from the police or the hands of another civilian,” she continued. “We cannot bring them back. You cannot pump life back into them at all. I can’t bring back my little brother's life, his life was taken by the hands of a man, a black man.”
When Trick Daddy, who co-hosts the 'Trick N' Trina Morning Show' with Trina on weekdays, asked the rapper what her comments had to do "with people's lives", Trina said she's "not talking about people's lives." Trick then said that a "handful" of looters and rioters who are out in the streets "for the wrong reasons," should not be compared to the peaceful protesters who made up most of the people who had taken to streets to raise their voice against systemic racism. "It's only a handful of them. The rest of us are tired of it, when the police get behind you, and the red and blue lights come on, you're not supposed to be scared," he said.
But Trina refused to take back her comments, accusing a lot of protesters of being "fake," and that "half of y'all marching are not even caring about this man." As soon as clips of her making the controversial comments went viral on social media, she started receiving backlash for the same. "To refer to your own as 'animals' is so despicable. Thank you for the memories, Trina, but good riddance to you and Black celebrities like you. Y'all are failing us," Author Michael Arceneaux said in a tweet.
Despite being criticized by the people online, Trina did not back down from her comments and even took time to respond to some of her followers. "You should do something for the community and focus on your s**t," she replied to one tweet.
While Trina has since deleted many of her tweets that she wrote in retaliation, two are still up that reference to the controversy. "Some of y’all are plain fuckN ignorant and nothing nobody do will help period," she wrote in one, while another said, "I’m at work and I’m muthafuckn ready".