JUDGING from the the media coverage of a certain Twitter spat, you would think that the pop culture issue of the week was either how “stroppy” or petulant Nicki Minaj was when she complained that she hadn’t been nominated for VMA video of the year, or how egotistical Taylor Swift was when she assumed that one of Minaj’s tweets was taking a shot at her.

The relevant Minaj tweet stated: "If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.” True enough, Swift’s nominated video for Bad Blood featured a band of skinny, female superheroes, so it’s perhaps not surprising she took the comment personally. Who else could it have been about? Not Beyonce, surely, the only other woman nominated, and also tweet-praised by Minaj?

Yet, you only have to look at Minaj’s series of tweets to see this wasn’t a personal attack. Minaj was questioning why her video Anaconda, which broke the record for the most views on Vevo when it was released, had not been nominated. And when she looked at this within the context of the whole of the music industry, she detected racism. She saw “other” girls winning awards, when she didn’t. She saw Miley Cyrus, who previously held the Vevo record for Wrecking Ball, a video that seemed to celebrate her own very slim, white body, winning it in 2014. She saw that she, Minaj, was not the type of artist that won – not just because she was female, but because she was a black woman who, in a very political way, had celebrated the black female body and critiqued cultural attitudes towards it.

However you rate the importance of social media spats, there’s often a reason why a Twitter row goes viral, and it’s usually because there is a genuine debate involved. It touches on something already bubbling away in our social media consciousness: in this case, a tension within feminism over whether the movement is failing black women and failing to acknowledge other forms of oppression and discrimination. Are feminism’s successes really just white women’s successes? Should women like Taylor Swift be acknowledging the way a prejudiced system has also advantaged her? In a 2014 Nation article, Feminism’s Toxic Twitter Wars, Michelle Goldberg looked at how women were calling each other out on ideological offences, particularly those relating to race. Across social media there have been many trends for calling out white feminist privilege; hashtags, for instance, like #solidarityisforwhitewomen.

Read the tweets that passed between Swift and Minaj and it’s possible to see a soft version of this row. Minaj is decrying the system. Swift tweets back, taking it personally, saying: “I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.” Minaj replies: “Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn't say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u should speak on this.” There are a lot of "I love yous", but this is a troubled sisterhood. What's getting in the way? Is it Swift’s status and power? Is it the fact she’s failing to acknowledge her own privilege or the racism at work within her industry? In the end, Swift did what many felt was right and acknowledged her mistake. She “misunderstood”, she said, and “misspoke”. But we’re still really waiting for her to “speak on this”, as Minaj asked.

Meanwhile, the story has provided an excuse for some startlingly patronising declarations by others. “Don’t play the race or skinny cards, Ms Minaj,” ran a headline to a Daily Mail piece by serial liberal-baiter Piers Morgan. "You’re just a stroppy little piece of work whose video wasn’t as good as Taylor Swift’s.” Elsewhere in the Daily Mail, the debate was described as a "catfight".

Of course, as some have pointed out, Beyonce, a black female artist, was nominated for the award. One black woman on the list, however, doesn’t mean there isn’t racism at work in the industry. But I don’t think this is simply a question of colour. It’s about the kind of cultural product that these artists deliver and how that relates to race. What Minaj is pointing out, I suspect, is that the music industry is discriminating, not just against black women, but against a particular type of black woman, the type that she is: fiercely sexual, unapologetic, proud of her own body image, of her ample bottom. Anaconda, whether you like it or not, is a sharp and bold attack on attitudes to black women’s bodies.

It’s clearly not over yet for the sisterhood. Feminism is more popular among young women than it has been in decades. But the feminist Twitter wars are far from over: alongside the “love yous” there’s a fair amount of hurt and misunderstanding. Minaj is a reminder that we’re not all the same, that class and race determine privilege as well as gender. When someone calls that out, we can’t afford to take it too personally. We need to listen. Criticism shouldn't be seen as a catastrophe, or a “catfight”, or even a war. It has to be heard and, better still, acted on.