Watch: Ellen faces backlash over ‘racist’ Nicki Minaj sketch
By Will Stroude
Ellen DeGeneres has come under fire after airing a “racist” Nicki Minaj skit on her weekday chatshow.
The Ellen host’s latest sketch, which parodies the Anaconda rapper’s childhood, has been denounced as a “little over a minute of modern minstrelsy” by media commentators and accused of perpetuating negative stereotypes about black women.
Introducing the skit, Ellen says: “I have one more thing to boost your mood… it was just announced that Nicki Minaj is producing a sitcom based on her childhood growing up in Queens, New York.”
“It’s not on the air yet, but I called in a favour and managed to get us a sneak peek. It’s totally real, not something I put together as a joke… real!”
The clip depicts Minaj as a child with a comically large rear-end, before showing her mother, father and even pet dog struggling to navigate their home with similar assets – after which Ellen deadpans: “They have big butts… that’s the joke.”
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The sketch has quickly drawn criticism for what some see as its perpetuation of racist steretypes. Gawker’s Rich Juzwiak wrote that the skit “amounted to a little over of a minute of modern minstrelsy” in which “members of a black family bumbled around their house impeded by their giant asses.”
“They knocked stuff over with their big butts, and found it challenging to sit on a couch together. The little girl character was made to bend over as she was introduced.”
He added: “It’s a joke, except it reduces Nicki Minaj to just an ass… This skit is at least lazy, at least casually racist.”
Refinery29’s Elizabeth Kiefer wrote: “Not only was this sketch not funny, it’s also pretty offensive.”
“Minaj may indeed have an ample derriere, but she is so much more than her physique, and watching a petite, white, middle-aged comedian poke fun at the singer’s butt smacks of casual racism and girl-on-girl body-shaming.”
Meanwhile, Minaj recently defended her onstage attack on VMA host Miley Cyrus, arguing that the former Disney star wants to “enjoy” black culture without engaging with the issues that affect black women. Who knows what she’ll make of this latest Ellen-based controversy…
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