A 15-year-old Ghanaian immigrant named Javits Frimpong was shot dead Thursday morning in the Bronx. Police are searching for three teenage boys. He went to a New York City public school.
Cardi B would like you to know she'd "never, never, never" put her own children in one.
The rapper — who endorsed Rep. Jasmine Crockett in a Texas Democratic primary and backed Kamala Harris in 2024 said, "The kids in New York are mean, nasty as fk." She described the school environment as one that drives children toward gang life. "That makes you want to join a gang… so people can stop f*ing with you."
She wasn't talking about one neighborhood or one demographic. "It's not a specific race or nationality that's making fun," she said. "It's a melting pot of everybody just being mean."
So Cardi B's assessment of the New York City public school system — the largest in the country, the one Democrats defend every single budget cycle — is that it's a violent, hostile environment that she personally will never expose her children to. Three nevers, for emphasis.
The party she campaigns for has a different message for parents who can't afford the alternative. Democrats in New York have fought school choice legislation for years. They've opposed voucher programs. They've blocked charter school expansions. The teachers' unions that fund Democratic campaigns have made it a standing policy to keep every available child inside the public system.
Cardi B's kids will never see the inside of a Bronx classroom. That option is reserved for families like Javits Frimpong's — immigrants who came to America believing the public school system would keep their children safe, or at least alive.
The contrast between what Cardi B says privately and what her party demands publicly isn't complicated. She has money. Money buys private school. Private school buys safety. The families who vote for the candidates she endorses don't have that money. Their kids get the melting pot of everybody just being mean.
Nicki Minaj, another rapper from the same city, backed Trump. Whatever you think of celebrity political endorsements, at least that one doesn't come with a footnote about fleeing the consequences of your own side's policies.
Javits Frimpong was 15. He went to school in the system Cardi B described. Three teenage suspects. One Thursday morning in the Bronx.