Rihanna slammed over 'disrespectful' edited image of Martin Luther King with gold grills
20 January 2022, 12:58
Rihanna stuns in Savage X Fenty Valentine’s Day promo
Fans called out the singer for posting a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. wearing gold grills, calling it 'disrespectful'
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Rihanna caused outrage on Twitter last night (Jan 19) after she changed her Twitter header to an image of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wearing gold grills to celebrate 'Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day'.
Rihanna 'drops Ari Fletcher from Savage Fenty partnership' over domestic abuse comments
Commenting under her most recent Twitter post, which sees the 'Love on the Brain' singer promoting her new Valentine's Day Savage X Fenty collection, one angry fan wrote:
"Hey @rihanna could you change your banner doesn’t show MLK in good taste".
Dear: @rihanna This is disrespectful. Take it down. As a non African American you have no idea what this man meant to us. He gave his life for ours. #mlk #MartinLutherKingJr
— Sweet Beans♋ (@BigAppleBaby) January 18, 2022
Causing a war of words amongst fans, some called out the Bajan singer for posting the disrespectful image, whilst others defended her stating that he's a staple in Black culture.
One fan wrote: "Regarding @rihanna's disrespect toward Dr King my only comment is I'm not gonna say Breezy was right . . . I'm just gonna say I understand".
Another one argued: "Its 100 hood dudes tweeting this same gold tooth MLK and 10k fliers with some image using him to sell something, but y’all got all the smoke for Rihanna? lol".
Whats that MLK banner about? It seems disrespectful and you should take it down.
— The Hard Black Truth (@MrBlack27073911) January 18, 2022
MLK didn’t wear gold teeth and earrings…it’s disrespectful to Foundational Black Americans🤦🏾♂️
— Donovan Morrow (@Dmorrow_5) January 18, 2022
They mad at Rihanna for using a photo of mlk with edits golds… baby he from the south. Best believe if he lived long enough, somebody’s favorite rapper would’ve gifted him some “for the culture”
— aurhora 💛💙 (@JustCallMeKourt) January 18, 2022
wait, ppl are legitimately mad at that Rihanna/MLK photoshop of him with a grill? like, that's what we're mad at? an image of Dr King (a Black man) photoshop'd rocking a grill (something that's culturally relevant and ultimately ultra Black to the region he's from)??
— NIAWILSON and SANDRABLAND (@definejulius) January 19, 2022
The 'Work' singer founder found herself making headlines last week (Jan 10) after she cut Ari Fletcher's Savage x Fenty ambassador brand deal after she made disturbing comments about domestic violence on a recent podcast.
Fans noticed that Ari was no longer visible on the lingerie website, speculation grew on Twitter that she had been removed from her deal. This came after she doubled down on her comments during an IG live, telling her followers that she simply didn’t care about domestic violence victims.
