In August 2020, Megan Thee Stallion accused rapper Tory Lanez of shooting her in the foot after an alleged dispute in his car as they left a party. At the time, Tory Lanez was arrested for possession of a weapon but not for shooting Megan. The case for determining whether or not the shooting happened as Megan said it did is still in the courts and another hearing is set for April. The Los Angeles County District Attorney publicly stated, “We believe the evidence substantially supports the charges and allegations and that evidence will be borne out in court.” Tory Lanez still denies all accusations and has taken to Twitter to voice his innocence and cast further doubt on Megan’s accusations.

Initially, Megan told police she stepped on glass. She later admitted this was a lie she told the police out of fear of violence against her and other Black people in the vehicle, including Tory. Despite that some people still took Megan’s statement to police as proof that she was lying about being shot. 

The Court of Public Opinion accused Megan of initiating an argument with Tory by putting hands on him first, though there was no evidence to point to that occurring. Others used her height and non-thin body type to justify why violence against her shouldn’t be taken seriously, or why she deserved it. Many of us fell into the racist and sexist culture that tried to force Megan to be quiet about the harm she experienced.

Megan was immediately met with disbelief from many in the public especially in the music industry. As updates on the case surfaced on social media, popular Black blogs like The Shade Room, DJ Akademiks and TMZ fanned the flames of the fire by writing biased coverage of the incident and spreading unverified misinformation.

But we have just one question: why? Why were so many people — strangers, celebrities, and media personalities alike — so invested in protecting Tory Lanez, who has been outrapped, outshined, and outdone by Megan at every turn? Why did so many people suddenly become firm believers in the criminal justice system — the same one that protects murderous cops and unfairly sentences Black people to death? Why were so many of us choosing to “wait for a jury” to rule on whether or not Megan was shot after she cried on camera and showed her injured foot and medical records on social media? Why was so many people’s first reaction to a Black woman being shot to regurgitate a bunch of anti-Black stereotypes about masculinity, dark-skin, and body type? 

The answer is clear: misogynoir. The term, coined by Black Queer feminist Moya Bailey, was created to address the unique experience of misogyny directed toward Black cis women in American visual and popular culture.” Misogynoir is what led to the disbelief and victim-blaming that Megan experienced after she was shot, and it is a problem amongst the male-dominated music-industry at large.  Latto recently gave an interview where she revealed that a male rapper tried to press her into having sex with him in order to release a track for her sophmore album, 777. Several rappers have maintained long and prosperous careers despite multiple rape and abuse allegations. 

As Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, said, “When one person says, 'Yeah, me, too,' it gives permission for others to open up.” If survivors are perpetually forced into silence, if their stories are picked apart and not believed before they’ve even gotten to tell them, then the cycle of abuse is able to continue. And more people are harmed.

Anytime a Black woman experiences harm or abuse, the overwhelming response to us has been similar to the one Megan faced, the one that most survivors get. We experience gaslighting, victim-blaming, and abuse apologizing from multiple directions. Time and time again, the “industry,” be it music or film, has lined up behind powerful (most times) men who have been accused of assault and violence largely against women. This is likely because the industry has more people like Tory — people being accused of abuse — to protect, and those people need Megan to be vilified and ostracized for telling her story. Another way to put it is, the music industry hates Black women and glorifies Black men, even when they are abusive. 

What Megan deserves—what all Black people deserve is to be believed when we say we’ve been harmed, and to be held accountable when we ourselves cause harm.