Cardi B Turns Testimony Into a Stand for Afro-Caribbean Recognition While Declaring Innocence in Civil Lawsuit

Cardi B Continues to Secure Her Bag: Plaintiff Agrees to Pay Her $350K in Album Cover Lawsuit
Credit: Chrisallmeid, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Cardi B appeared in a Los Angeles County courtroom this week to testify in a lawsuit that has followed her since 2018. The case stems from a dispute with a security guard, yet it also became a moment for the rapper to speak about her identity. Her testimony drew attention to the way Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino communities are often misidentified in the United States, where the beauty of Blackness is too often treated as one category.

@yourfavoritepaparazzi

#cardib #fyp

♬ original sound – megamediacrave

A Dispute Revisited

According to The Independent, the lawsuit was filed by Emani Ellis, who says Cardi B scratched her face with acrylic nails, spat on her, and insulted her during an argument outside an obstetrician’s office. Ellis has claimed that the incident left her scarred and traumatized, leading to the loss of her job. She is seeking damages for medical treatment, emotional suffering, lost wages, and additional compensation.

Cardi B told the court that none of this happened. “I could not even make a scratch because I did not touch her,” she testified. She admitted the exchange was angry but said it never became physical. At the time she was four months pregnant, a fact she had not shared publicly, and she explained that Ellis’s behavior left her worried. According to her testimony, “She was going to touch me, but she did not.” Cardi B added that Ellis followed her into the building and seemed to be filming her, which made her fear that her pregnancy would be revealed before she was ready.

Cardi B Explains That She’s Afro-Caribbean

During questioning, Cardi B was asked whether she considers herself African American. She responded firmly: “I consider myself Afro-Caribbean.”

Her statement echoed what she had said in earlier public conversations. In 2019, during an Instagram Live session, she explained, “I’m not Mexican at all. I’m West Indian, and I’m Dominican. I speak Spanish because I’m Dominican.” She also addressed criticism about her race, saying, “It’s like, ‘Cardi’s Latin, she’s not Black.’ And it’s like, bro, my features don’t come from white people, okay? And they always wanna race-bait when it comes to me…I have Afro features.”

Her insistence on naming her identity highlights the importance of recognition. To assume that all Black people in the United States are African American erases the cultural and historical presence of Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Latinos. Cardi B’s background, shaped by her Dominican father and Trinidadian mother, connects her to a Caribbean lineage that is both African and Latin, and her decision to affirm that in court carried weight well outside the case.

Why Recognition Matters

Accurate identification is not a technicality. Blackness exists across geographies and cultures, from African Americans in the United States to Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino populations in the Americas. When communities are mislabeled, their stories and contributions are erased. (Let’s not forget that each of these communities stories are important.)

The Caribbean has long been home to Black people whose presence was formed through slavery, migration, and resistance, and their visibility matters in how history is told. Cardi B’s testimony placed this in public view, showing that heritage cannot be reduced to a single label.

The Case Moves Forward

As the trial continues, the jury will decide whether the 2018 confrontation was only words or whether it crossed into something physical. Ellis claims she was harmed and left traumatized. Cardi B maintains it was only an argument that took place while she was protecting a pregnancy she had not yet shared with the world. Whatever the verdict, her words about being Afro-Caribbean have already traveled outside the courtroom and reinforced the call for proper recognition of Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latino identities.

For Image credit or remove please email for immediate removal - info@belatina.com