Lil’ Kim takes her toddler out, and the comments are brutal

Too many people with a Twitter account and far too much time on their hands seem to be drunk on the power of being able to tweet whatever they want about whomever they want. Free speech is a right, but things start to get really gross and wrong when mean and hurtful comments are directed toward children.

Lil’ Kim is no stranger to criticism about her appearance. But when the rapper brought her 2-year-old daughter, Royal Reign, with her to the VH1 Hip Hop Honors: All Hail the Queens event in New York City, an absurd number of adults, who should know better, tweeted some really hateful things about her toddler, whose left eye appeared to be slightly closed and/or asymmetrical to her right eye.

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The “Crush on You” star was honored at the event with an award for groundbreaking MC. In her acceptance speech, she proudly gave a sweet shout-out to her daughter: “My beautiful baby, Royal Reign, is in the building,” she said. “My beautiful baby!”

And a beautiful baby she is indeed. Instead of using Twitter as a platform where they could extend the conversation about Lil’ Kim as a performer — whether they are in agreement that she is one of the most memorable female MCs of all time or anything else they want to say about her career — some folks tweeted horrific comments like these: 

Lil Kim no she wrong for doing that to that baby eye. She knew full well that pussy was too aged to be getting knocked up.

— MISS NIGGA. (@JakouryMcQueen) July 12, 2016

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Wtf wrong with lil Kim baby eye!

— 🎀Baddest Bitch🎀 (@trap__selena) July 12, 2016

Some commenters wondered whether Royal Reign has a “lazy eye.” A birth defect. But, you know, not out of concern.

https://twitter.com/ShxdexQui/status/608444670914494467
Others just made silly and insensitive remarks about her eye and about her mother, forgetting, I suppose, that Royal Reign is a defenseless child and that there is no excuse for trolling a defenseless child — or her mother, for that matter.

Children and, yes, even the children of celebrities who put their lives out there for public consumption, deserve our protection. What kind of message are we sending when we use social media to mock a 2-year-old for her eye? Obviously appearance is, above all other things, the most important thing of all, and the sooner a toddler learns to hate her body, the better. Second, if we don’t like the changes a woman like Lil’ Kim has made to her own appearance, then by all means, it’s totally within our right to harshly judge both her and her child.

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Whatever happened to “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”? Hiding behind a computer and spewing hatred about a child adds a whole lot of damaging noise pollution that society certainly doesn’t need.