Source: Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty
Up until today, if you’d asked me who YesJulz was, I would have told you I have no idea. And that was the truth…partially. After some investigation today though, I found that her reputation precedes her. Two years ago, I do remember watching a tearful video she recorded and shared after the influencer and social media star turned rapper was appropriately dragged for this tweet.
If you can’t tell from the little avatar in the corner, YesJulz, Julieanna Goddard, who is Puerto Rican and Italian, is a White woman.
According to Teen Vogue, the moment became even more ironic and problematic because Julz claims that her marketing agency seeks to “[bridge] the gap between cool and conscious.”
In a since-deleted tweet, culture commentator Scottie Beam was one of the people who called Julz out for her inappropriateness.
Julz apologized with a teary voice but no tears in a series of Snapchat videos.
But this wasn’t the only time she exhibited some foul behavior. Earlier this year, Soulja Boi recorded a video of YesJulz rapping. And the lyrics were also offensive.
For those of you who missed the lyrics, they read as follows: “…because my ass is fat and my skin ain’t black, I’m the vulture that you’re hunting. Yet they never do nothing, they never give back. They keep killing Blacks”
If I’m not mistaken, in addition to calling out her White skin and butt, she’s also claiming that Black people don’t do anything for our community and kill each other.
She also issued an apology for this.
Scottie Beam spoke out about this incident as well.
Honestly, homegirl could be a Fox News anchor. She’s beyond an issue. And while more than a few Black people have canceled her, there are still those who were willing to not only give her a platform, but also offer support for her foolishness.
According to Hip Hop Wired, YesJulz was a guest on the Easily Offended podcast with Murda Mook, ItsBizKit, and Movie Matt. While there, they talked about the N-word shirt and the problems it caused with her hosting the Rolling Loud festival in Miami.
A couple of clips from the nearly three-hour long podcast caught people’s attention. Particularly when she spoke about Scottie Beam and Karen Civil.
“I was seeing somebody and I was about to host Rolling Loud and I found out that the person I was with—I kind of did some f*cked up sh*t and looked through his phone. And I found out he was playing me. I couldn’t tell him I looked through his phone…So I found some sh*t. I start crying, I tell my homegirl. I was talking to my friend [about hosting the festival in Miami] and he’s like, ‘I got these new screen print tees. Do you want to wear any of them when you’re hosting the festival?’ And he sends me a picture of a t-shirt that said, ‘[Niggas] lie a lot.’ So I was like in my feelings, hurt, upset, wanting to show my dude that I knew he was playing some sh*t. So I, not thinking of anything, I tweeted the shirt and I said, ‘Should I wear this tomorrow?’ And that was me hoping that he would see and know that I’m mad at him. Cuz I’m not answering his texts, I can’t tell him I went through his phone. All this stuff, right. Maybe ten seconds after I tweeted that, my whole world fell down. My heart was in the pit of my stomach and I just knew that I had f*cked up.”
Interestingly enough, Murda Mook, one of two Black men on the panel was confused by the controversy.
“That was the first thing. So when that happened, then people started creating this narrative of me being racist and a culture vulture…because people already had that narrative but they just had nothing to support it with…People feel that I should not be in certain positions in this community or culture, getting bags.”
Murda Mook, a battle rapper from Harlem, wanted to know the people who took issue with her and her work.
“Scottie Beam, Karen Civil, a lot of people feel like I shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. It should be them instead. But we all do different things. Me and Karen do not do the same thing. I don’t give a f*ck about doing dinners at Louis Vuitton. I don’t give a f*ck about doing a radio show every single day. My interests are different from Scottie’s…So there’s a narrative of YesJulz doesn’t respect Black woman. And the thing is I love women period and I specifically love and respect Black women, who are the strongest women I know.
Murda Mook: B*tches is annoying too, but…Trust me, these b*tches is wild… My diagnosis of the situation is, you not a faker. You’re inside the culture, you just happen to be White. The shirt, I would be cool with you saying n*gga. cuz I got White friends that I grew up with, they don’t even know they White. They grew up so much with us, they not White. They say n*gga all day. But she’s Spanish, you not even White. Are you Spanish?
YesJulz: I’m Puerto Rican and Italian
Murda Mook: Then you Black!
As YesJulz continued to tell her story, Murda Mook continued to call her a n*gga.
Chile.
Black men caping, defending and excusing Black women is not a new phenomena. But this level of buffoonery was something I haven’t seen in ages. It’s almost like we were watching a “Living Color” skit, it was so egregious.
What was incredible is not only that Murda Mook defending YesJulz—a White woman, he was doing so at the expense of the Black community, and Black women specifically. And for what? To defend a White woman who speaks out of turn when it comes to Black people and instead of taking responsibility for her own actions, would rather blame it on Black women for calling her out on it. More than what Black men in this room were willing to do.
The entire interview was particularly frustrating because not only are White women afforded more opportunities than Black women, in every industry in this country, the spaces that Black people have created that used to be reserved just for us, are now being co-opted by White people as well. And not White people who even deserve the opportunity because they’ve proven they can be respectful. It’s the same White people who disrespect us… repeatedly.
And sadly White women like YesJulz keep acting up because Black men like Murda Mook keep extending passes.
As much as YesJulz deserves to be called out and canceled, the Black men like Murda Mook who are partially responsible for her foolishness, deserves as much if not more of the dragging.
Thankfully, there were some people who were willing to do that. See what they had to say and watch the full interview in the video below. The discussion about YesJulz’s racial controversies begin around the 30 minute mark.
