On June 25th when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, many artists performing from Olivia Rodrigo to Halsey spoke out against this decision. Performing at Hyde Park in London, the Brighton-formed, all-women band Dream Wife decided to add some extra, uncredited words to their set in solidarity with people across the pond whose rights were taken away.
My body is not a political playground. It’s not a place for leglisation.
It’s mine and it’s my future.
If this sounds familiar, this is because this is a bit of a much longer viral interview featuring Samirah Raheem in 2018 when she participated in Amber Rose’s Slut Walk festival.
Some on TikTok, Instagram (Reels), and other platforms took notice and called out Dream Wife. Almost all the comments on their TikTok demand an acknowledgment of this appropriation and credit given to Raheem. Word got back to Raheem who seemed very overwhelmed by all of this news. She acknowledge this was unsurprising, but hurt considering the backlash she got after that video went viral.
Raheem alludes to the way white women historically have used the language and movements built up by people of color when it suits them without giving credit. What’s worse is that in this situation the women most affected by this rollback of reproductive health protections are the very type of women Dream Wife steal from—American women of color especially those economically disadvantaged.
It feels like I’m watching my erasure in a weird way. It’s like Cadillac Car in DreamGirls
— on some Elvis internet shit.
In a follow-up video, she revealed that she considered deleting her original call out. Her friends talked her out of it saying that the apology didn’t feel genuine. It probably wasn’t because if you Google any of the phrases said by Dream Wife you’d see were already immortalized by Raheem years ago. Less than a day after the Dream Wife took down their video, a clothing brand (Miista) reposted it and it was already seen by thousands more. They’ve since deleted it now, too.
Dream Wife did put out an apology (that you can’t comment on) however the damage has already been done. Between Dream Wife’s and Mista’s posts, there are over 10,000 likes meaning thousands more saw that video. Even if it wasn’t reposted further with the context it was Raheem, there were hundreds if not thousands of people at the concert. A concert which opened for The War on Drugs and Phoebe Bridgers. They got the clout, credit, and the possible coins (from ads) for having the “right look” for the message.
Any time you want to support music with Raheem’s words, check out Kristy Harper’s My Body. My Future featuring Samirah Raheem. Harper credits Raheem and Raheem has dueted TikToks with Harper’s track. Raheem sells merch, and works as a model and activist.
(image: screencap)
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