The British singer has forever been in and out of the headlines for her highly-publicized relationship dramas and controversial actions.
In an episode of Rob & Chyna, the reality star said not too long after their split:
“I had a really bad past relationship where the girl was cheating and having sex with so many different people.”
Old flame, A$AP Rocky, publicly blasted Rita in his track, “Better Things,” and TMZ reported that DJ Calvin Harris called it quits with Rita after she was seen getting “touchy” with Justin Bieber.
The song featured lyrics about being “open-minded” and “50-50” when it comes to sexuality, which many people from the LGBTQ community found to be “dangerous” and “tone-deaf.”
It usually happens on social media, when influencers use makeup, hair products, and in some cases, surgery to drastically change the appearance of their ethnicity.
When a Twitter thread calling on people to expose “all of the white girls cosplaying as black women on Instagram” went viral.
And thousands of white women “blackfishing” themselves on Instagram were publically named and shamed for creating aesthetics and features typically associated with black women, so as dark skin and afro hair.
Wherein elements of a minority culture are adopted by those in a more dominant, less discriminated culture without crediting the origin.
Swedish influencer, Emma Hallberg is one of the most-cited examples, with countless side-by-side images of the twenty-one-year-old circulating online.
The singer was born to Albanian parents and was raised in London… But she has been known to adopt black aesthetics in the past.
That some people are confused as to whether she is mixed race or not.
But she has owned up to not being black in the past…
Speaking with Wendy Williams a couple of years ago, who admitted to thinking she was mixed race, Rita said she “might as well be,” but is definitely Albanian.
Such as box braids and afros.
This Twitter user shared a series of photos of the singer with her hair in the said styles, along with a picture of her very European mother, writing:
“Finding out Rita Ora isn’t black at all and both of her parents are white Albanians is so trippy. the girl’s BEEN blackfishing.”
And people responded by expressing their shock over Rita’s true ethnicity.
This Twitter user shared the singer’s school photos, saying:
“This is what she looked like when she was young. She’s always been an ethnic Albanian girl with a tan and never changed her features or anything. She’s always been a loud and proud Albanian. The cultural appropriation of braids is not ok but it doesn’t make her black.”
Though at the end of the day… Who’s business is it but hers?
For more on the controversial world of blackfishing, keep scrolling to see why people think Bhad Bhabie is guilty of it too…
