Blac Chyna sat down for her first talk show interview with Wendy Williams this week. It seems weird that it’s her first because we know so much about her but it’s usually news/gossip written about her and Chyna is reclaiming her narrative. This reminds me of when Amber Rose (Chyna’s bestie) built her career in 2010 following her breakup with Kanye West. Both Amber and Blac Chyna rose to fame along similar trajectories, both are self-made millionaires, and both are constantly framed as manipulative gold-diggers. I guess having a voice is important for sex positive ex-strippers in Hollywood because we aren’t as progressive as we think.
While she said she was nervous, she killed the interview. Chyna told Wendy how confusing things can get when internet rumours start circulating, and even spoke about her relationship with her controversial mother, Tokyo Toni. Chyna said she loves her mom, despite Tokyo publicly dragging her, calling her a bad mother, and basically labelling her daughter with all the untrue Black women tropes and stereotypes.
Not only did Chyna clear the air on many rumours, she told the world who she is and where she came from. The interview was Rob Kardashian heavy, but Rob is a part of her story and the Kardashian family eclipses anyone’s individuality when they are attached to them, past or present. Wendy’s questions were on point, as she has been one of the media personalities that talks about Chyna the most.
We all know the crazy Blac Chyna/Kim Kardashian/Kylie Jenner/Tyga situation but Chyna let Wendy ask about the timeline and clarified what happened. Chyna admitted to the messy way her then-fiancé Tyga began dating a then-underage Kylie. She also confirmed the awkwardness of Kim ending her friendship with Chyna when Kylie essentially stole him from Chyna. We already know Kim framed this as “loyalty” but the Kardashians operate as a gang who seem only accountable to each other. Whenever Kim has talked about her past relationship with Chyna, she glosses over Kylie and just says it would have been hard to remain friends with her.
The Kardashians have also used their show as an all-out assault on Chyna often: there was the time Kendall was pissed Rob re-gifted Chyna an iPad she bought him, there was past serial cheater Scott Disick talking super greasy about Chyna and Rob, mocking the fact that if he got her pregnant (he did) she would birth the only true Kardashian of the next generation (she did). Kim, the ambassador of the family, says she can’t talk badly about Chyna because she is Dream Kardashian’s mother. This of course is PR fiction. There was when Rob went on Snapchat when Dream was a month old, telling the world Chyna left him and took their baby during Christmas. And of course, there’s the biggest violation: Rob posting nudes and texts from Chyna after she sent him a picture of her kissing another man in her (he said “their”) bed.
Look, there’s enough toxic masculinity, slut shaming and patriarchy here but I’ve never been convinced Rob is the amazing person his sisters say he is. Unlike his sisters, he is not afraid of embarrassing his romantic partners and family, and it’s alarming. He slut shamed Rita Ora when they broke up. But it’s the Black woman who got her nudes leaked, among everything else. The Kardashian stay so close to Blackness they can touch it, so to see them do more harm than what they usually do (imitate our aesthetic, steal designs from Black women, wear braids) with Chyna has been jarring. And that she’s not a Black man is relevant: Lamar was treated like a king compared to this.
In 2015, Chyna, Amber Rose, and their friends went to the MTV VMAs dressed in clothing covered in words that they are routinely called: hoe, bitch, stripper, etc. Muva Amber has absolutely been the queen of reclaiming words used against her and turning it into movements, like her annual Amber Rose Slutwalk. Chyna seems to be heading down the same path of liberation. Recently on Instagram, she told her fans that she wanted to share more and make positive changes in her life. I’m here for all of it.
Attached - Blac Chyna out in LA late last month.
