Rihanna began trending on Twitter yesterday after Forbes revealed that the 33-year-old singer, fashion designer, and beauty mogul is now worth 1.7 billion dollars and is the richest female musician on earth.
The news has sparked a fiery debate on “eat the rich” Twitter, revealing that the white privilege and systemic racism narrative is a lie and that authentic leftists don’t really care about black female success.
Rihanna’s Success Undermines the Left’s Narrative
The debate over whether it’s okay for Rihanna to be a billionaire highlights the tension between the “white privilege” lie and the reality of the American Dream. Narratives of systemic, racial, and gender inequality are the left’s path to socialism. If “inequity” is based on immutable qualities, then our entire American system needs to go.
https://twitter.com/OgLakyn/status/1422920575001849860?s=20
I call dibs on eating Rihanna https://t.co/8fD2weUG5S
— Diddy, flummoxed by a dollar in his possession (@aDopamineFiend) August 4, 2021
I think the existence of billionaires is unethical. Wether it’s my good sis Rihanna or not, billionaires should not exist.
— Friendly Black Hottie (@MONR0WE) August 4, 2021
The path from white privilege to socialism is summed up nicely by Federalist senior contributor Georgi Boorman:
White privilege theory seeks equality of outcome, not merely the equal dispensation of individual justice. That goal can only be reached by redistribution policies that violate the principle of local governance, treat people as ethnic “units,” limit individuals’ opportunities based on race, suppress freedom of speech, and restrict the freedom to keep and control one’s own money.
To the ideological leaders of the left, the Bernie Sanderses and the AOCs, Rihanna’s success is one of the greatest threats to their movement because she is everything an accomplished American person can’t be: a black woman with a rocky start to life.
Left Only Celebrates Success Through Race and Sex Prism
Interestingly, some leftists are giving the popular R&B star a pass.
Me ignoring that Rihanna is a billionaire when it’s time to eat the rich pic.twitter.com/VBYdJas5zn
— Muted. Argue with yourself. (@___inCANdescent) August 4, 2021
me when we are eating billionaires and it gets to rihanna pic.twitter.com/AhxQrbuuOP
— matt (@mattxiv) August 4, 2021
me: "fuck yeah, eat the rich!"
"breaking: rihanna is officially a billionaire"
me: pic.twitter.com/b5upi9beZy
— alex (@alex_abads) August 4, 2021
These socialists are struggling to join their comrades in hating Rihanna. Since so many people have bought into the systemic racism narrative, they see Rihanna as someone subverting the system, and naturally, they want to cheer her on. This inability to “eat Rihanna,” as they would like to eat the rest of the billionaire class, is a result of the white privilege lie: They want to celebrate her success because of her race and sex.
https://twitter.com/kennygotsoul/status/1423075811972714497?s=20
https://twitter.com/Ransome_Note/status/1423059426685063170?s=20
I will be celebrating a black woman who built an empire from the ground up, whose products benefit black people, and has always used her platform for good. Congrats @rihanna Can I hold a $1? https://t.co/3SlcmIWP2N
— Cortney R. VanHook (@Cortney_VanHook) August 4, 2021
The people who refuse to be happy for her know the systemic racism narrative is simply a means to their desired end. Everything about Rihanna, from her sex to her skin color, and especially her upbringing, troubles the left.
Rihanna from Rags to Riches
Rihanna has one of the most incredible modern rags-to-riches stories. She grew up poor in a three-bedroom bungalow in Bridgetown, Barbados, where she sold clothes with her father in a stall on the street. Her father was an alcoholic and crack cocaine addict, and he physically abused her mother.
Rihanna struggled with excruciatingly painful headaches for several years during her childhood. She even had multiple CT scans for her headaches, recalling, “The doctors even thought it was a tumor because it was that intense.” After her parents divorced when she was 14, her health improved.
Growing up, she listened to reggae, American hip-hop, and R&B. When she was as young as 7, Rihanna began idolizing American singers like Madonna and Janet Jackson and dreamed of becoming a star herself.
As a young teen, Rihanna formed a girl group with two of her friends and was discovered by Evan Rogers, an American record producer. Rogers helped Rihanna record a demo that led to an audition with Jay-Z, who was the head of Def Jam Recordings.
Jay-Z signed Rihanna in 2005, and her music career skyrocketed. She has won nine Grammys, 13 American Music Awards, and eight Billboard Music Awards. Rihanna’s music, however, only accounts for a small percent of her wealth. Her money was made via her business ventures in beauty and fashion.
In the early 2010s, Rihanna began collaborating on several cosmetics collections until she launched her own line, Fenty Beauty, in 2017. Fenty Beauty, known for offering 40 different shades of foundation at its launch (now grown to 50), was an instant success.
In 2018, Rihanna launched Savage X Fenty, a lingerie brand with designs that include a wide variety of sizes and shades to match all skin tones. In 2019, she partnered with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to create the Fenty fashion line.
She’s also begun dipping her toes into acting, with major roles in “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” (2017), “Ocean’s 8” (2018), and “Guava Island” (2019).
From her humble beginning to her rise to fame and fortune, Rihanna is truly the embodiment of the American Dream, a bona fide self-made woman who capitalized on her remarkable talents. She deserves praise not because she is black and female, but because of her smarts, talent, and resiliency despite her rocky childhood.
No one should be anything but happy for Rihanna. If you’re not, you’re either jealous or a radical leftist watching your entire carefully constructed narrative of the gender pay gap, white guilt, and systemic racism fall apart at the seams.
