Jane Oranika (aka emerging rap star Chika) has never been a stranger to speaking out, with her voice first gaining notoriety when she posted a “whiteface” makeup tutorial on Twitter the day after Donald Trump was elected in 2016, saying “African-American? Never felt that, never heard of that, never tasted that, never smelled that. Barack Obama? Is that some kind of sauce?” Twitter briefly suspended her account after someone reported it, so she reposted on Instagram, and it went viral. (The original Twitter post now has over 3.6 million views.) She later created the #EgoChallenge to promote body positivity, protested Alabama’s 2019 Abortion bill with her track ““Richey v. Alabama,” and blasted Kanye West’s support of Trump with her own freestyle over “Jesus Walks.”
It was little surprise to see her peacefully demonstrating in Los Angeles yesterday at the George Floyd protests. But as we alarmingly witnessed during episodes across the country, police presence escalated the protests. While some were recklessly looting, scores of innocent civilians calling for an end to systemic racism and police brutality were tear gassed and pelted with rubber bullets and shrapnel. Chika was detained for supposedly “failing to disperse,” and was handcuffed and forced in to tight quarters on a police van with others for hours. She documented the string of events throughout the day and evening on her socials.
“Today was not a riot. Today was peaceful until police began beating and targeting protestors,” Chika captioned a 30-minute clip late last night. “Nobody deserved to be arrested or detained.”
See her posts below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CA1cMY4FX8v/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2AejhHxU6/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CA2B3y9Fl7X/
