Blac Chyna: A Complete Breakdown Of Intergenerational Trauma And Everything It Stands For – And What It Has To Do With My Own Rape Trauma

Blac Chyna has been associated with the Kardashian-Jenner family for many years now, and now, through her daughter with Rob Kardashian, she’ll be forever associated with the family, whether she likes it or not. Her history is pretty complex, so please bear with me while I try my best to pin everything down to a tea. You see, it all started when Chyna, who now goes by her birth name, Angela White, was friends with Kim Kardashian. She even made an appearance on the family’s reality show, ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ in its early days. Chyna became romantically involved with Tyga (we talked about him in the previous blog entry), had a child with him, and was engaged to him. He then left Chyna to be with Mim’s younger, then-underage-sister, Kylie Jenner. Kim, of course, took Kylie’s side in the matter and ended her friendship with Chyna. Chyna then became romantically involved with Rob, Kim and Kylie’s brother, became engaged to him and had a child with him, Dream.

So now that we’ve got the summary of all the dirty details of love square out of the way , I think it’s now finally time to talk about Chyna for a change. Many people have had opinions of her in the past; through her early life as a stripper, her history with Tyga and the aftermath of her relationship with him and Rob. To say that it was a messy time in her life, as well as the time of everyone else in her life at the time, would be an understatement. All the craziness was unfolded for everyone to see on ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’, as well as ‘Rob & Chyna’, the former couple’s own spinoff series. And speaking of ‘Rob & Chyna’, Chyna sued the entire Kardashian family in 2022 for allegedly interfering with her reality show’s future. Simultaneously, she was also suing Rob for assault, battery, and harassment. She lost, but some details on the rapper and reality star were made public through the trial.

Kim and Khloe denied they had the power to end the show to begin with. They had a lot of opinions about it, but it wasn’t as if anyone would ever listen to them in the first place. Kris Jenner, on the other hand, did; and she texted showrunners, calling Chyna stupid, accused her of being drunk for three days straight, called her ghetto, and told them they should ‘ditch that b*tch’. According to Rob, his relationship with Chyna wasn’t real. It was filled with negativity, abuse and turmoil, and he said he wouldn’t marry her because he wouldn’t do it to his daughter with Chyna. A physical altercation happened between the former couple in December 2016, when their daughter was just a month old, where Rob alleged that Chyna pointed a gun at him that night. Chyna denied his claims. She said in court that she picked up an unloaded gun from the nightstand but did not point it at Rob. Rob also discussed his social anxiety stemmed from his drastic weight gain, and told the jury that Chyna, knowing his struggles, forced to leave the house and celebrate just a few weeks after the physical altercation that happened between them. Chyna, in turn, told the jury that it was a good celebration and everyone had a good time. And finally, Kylie Jenner testified and told the jury that Tyga had previously told her that Chyna attacked him with a knife. Kris testified and told the jury about a cut that Tyga had from the attack. She also testified of Chyna threatening to kill Kylie. Kylie testified that she woke up to threatening texts from Chyna.

When addressing her ‘he needs to ditch the b*tch’ texts after the December 2016 altercation, Kris said, ‘I was very angry, very upset, very disappointed. During his opening statement, the Kardashians’ lawyer, Michael Rhodes, also showed alleged February 2017 texts from Chyna to Rob sent just a few months after they broke up. She wrote Rob ‘F U,’ called Rob a fat b*tch, and wrote that his disgusting sex was horrible. And despite Chyna’s treatment of Kylie at the time, Kylie still wanted to gift her and Rob, as well as their daughter, Dream, a home for them to live in as a family. As mentioned previously, relationship between Rob and Chyna turned physical. Corey Gamble, Kris Jenner’s boyfriend, testified that he went to Kylie’s house in December 2016 to intervene after Rob and Chyna’s alleged fight. He said Kris put the phone on speaker and Corey listened. He said, ‘I could hear Chyna screaming.’ He said that Chyna screamed, ‘F*ck you’ and ‘I’m gonna kill you, you fat motherf*cker’. It was also revealed that Chyna had strangled Rob with an iPhone cord. These allegations were denied. Chyna said that Rob was playing video games and not paying attention to her, so she ‘playfully’ went up behind him and put the cord around his neck to get his attention. Following their 2016 split, it was reported that E! network and production company Bunim Murray encouraged Rob and Chyna to try to work things out and go to a retreat together since E! was coming close to the deadline option for picking up season 2. Text messages were shown to prove it. The family was on board, but then Chyna filed a restraining order against Rob, which meant they couldn’t film. It happened in July 2017, shortly before the deadline for the second season to be greenlit.

This is just the end of the story of the details of the trial. That’s when Chyna’s mother, Tokyo Toni, finally comes in. Shortly before the trial, Toni shared a video of her thoughts on Chyna’s legal battle, saying things like the Kardashians looked dead and that sh*t was going to get real. During trial, it was claimed that Toni made a physical threat towards the Kardashian family. The judge agreed, and therefore, she wasn’t allowed in the courtroom. Chyna’s own lawyer agreed, calling the video inappropriate and unacceptable. This wasn’t the first time Chyna’s mother caused trouble and distress. You could just see the tension between the mother and daughter from a mile away. In fact, in March 2023, Chyna revealed on ‘The Jason Lee Show’ that she was temporarily estranged from her mother. She said, ‘I feel like we’ve tried to work out things and whatnot. Only thing I can do as a daughter is honestly just love her cause she’s still my mom at the very end of the day. I just pray about it and I give it to God and I just wash my hands with it. I just basically take all of that and remember that I have two kids, and that they’re going to have a happy beautiful life and a mom that’s there.’ They made amends that summer and publicly reunited when Chyna celebrated her sobriety anniversary that September while appearing on an episode of ‘Tamron Hall’. Toni said of her daughter, ‘Seeing her sober, no makeup, fillers gone—this is who I birthed. She’s a very beautiful person. What you see is what you get.’

The relationship dynamic between Chyna and her mother, or as Chyna would call her, Ms. Toni, was….complex, and that’s a kind, elegant, and gentle way of putting it. It was actually none of those three things, and I’m personally VERY surprised that Chyna even allowed her mother to be anywhere near her again after what she’d done. Let it be known that Kris Jenner isn’t the ideal mother herself, but Ms Toni; she’s just beyond measures. We, as outsiders looking in, got glimpses of their relationship dynamic on ‘Rob & Chyna’. Every time Ms. Toni was to appear onscreen, you just knew there would be tension. Nothing about her ever seemed to be good. Chyna was always worried at the mere potential of her mother’s presence. When I first watched ‘Rob & Chyna’ I couldn’t put two and two together as to why exactly; and what exactly made Ms. Toni such an unpleasant person to be around.

There was nothing good about Rob and Chyna as a couple. They were constantly bickering and screaming at each other. The abuse was evident. The relationship was characterized by constant arguments and a lack of trust. I think the jury that was involved in the trial could’ve watched the entire ‘Rob & Chyna’ series, as well as the scenes where Chyna was involved in on ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ while she was dating Rob, and seen the abuse that Chyna had endured at the hands of Rob. In no way am I saying that Chyna wasn’t to blame for anything because she absolutely was at fault for a lot of things, but Rob was too, and most times, at least from the outside looking, he was at fault most times. Most times, it seemed as though Rob was deliberately pushing for Chyna to look like the bad guy in the eyes of the public, but especially in the eyes of his family, who already had opinions about her.

Chyna came into Rob’s life at his absolute worst time in his life. It was actually a time in his life where he really shouldn’t have been in a relationship with anyone and worked on himself and is well-being instead. As Kris described during a therapy session that was shown on ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’, Rob was very athletic in his younger years in high school, then took on participating on ‘Dancing With The Stars’ despite never having any experience in dance, and still took on second place in the competition. By 2014, however, Rob gained over 100 pounds and refused to leave the house. He didn’t attend Kim’s wedding to Kanye West, and he didn’t attend the family’s famous annual Christmas party that year. It was no different in 2016. In fact, he gained even more weight during his relationship with Chyna, as showcased on the show. He was, and unbelievably so, up to 300 pounds.

Rob was obviously struggling emotionally and mentally. That said, being with Chyna gave him an opportunity to bring someone down with him. He’d constantly pick fights with her out of complete nothingness. Even if you never watched a single episode of ‘Rob & Chyna’, you still most likely know about their explosive fight that started because of fries, as well as the fight where Chyna was on the phone with Rob while in the car and she screamed at him uncontrollably asking him who he was cheating on her with. That infamous ‘ARE YOU STILL TEXTING BITCHES, YES OR NO?!’ was absolutely unforgettable. Thereafter, he refused to speak to her, and she had to go to Kris to get to speak to him. He was the one who cheated, and she still wanted to work things out with him. He then, yet again, refused to have any communication with Chyna, or anyone in his family for that matter. So much so that it was unknown whether he’d attend Khloe’s birthday. Nevertheless, with Mim’s encouragement, Khloe gave a personal invite to Chyna regardless of whether he came or not, and Chyna was so happy about the invitation she didn’t expect. Rob ended up showing up for Khloe in the end.

This wasn’t the end of the road for them, as we all know. Drama seemed to follow wherever they went in their relationship. When Chyna gave her honest opinion about him starting a business, which is what we now know as Arthur George, his sock business, he got mad. She was worried about him starting a business while they were getting ready for the birth of their child, as well as during the time when he should be figuring on his health. Yet again, thhe for into a huge fight. And yet again, he was avoiding having any communication with Chyna or his family. No one could reach him. This time, he didn’t want to go to celebrate his grandmother’s birthday. When Kim called Chyna to figure out the real issue between the two, Chyna said exactly how it was. She told Kim that she thought that he wasn’t going to the birthday celebration on purpose so that he could blame it on her because he knew already the family had opinions of her.

Their relationship was rocky, to say the least. In December 2016, it was reported that the Kardashian-Jenner family was over Chyna, and didn’t support the relationship any longer. She was also not invited to their annual Christmas party. Nevertheless, the duo reunited in January 2017 to celebrate their one year anniversary. However, the relationship finally came to end in February 2017, but not without post-separation events happening thereafter. A source told People at the time, ‘Chyna is super fed up with Rob and thinks he is way too emotional and depressed. She thinks he has terrible issues. He is always battling his own insecurities and is unstable. It’s a major turn-off to her, and she thinks it’s incredibly unhealthy for the baby and their family.’

Things seemed to be going great between them in the months after. They were even spotted out together and Rob praised Chyna on Instagram. In an inter with with Cosmopolitan South Africa, published in March 2017, Chyna said, ‘I feel like every person who’s in a long-term relationship, or who is committed to their person, goes through ups and downs. Everything isn’t always going to be peaches and cream. If it is, then it’s fake. I’m in it for the long haul.’ It’s actually just a load of crap, because I don’t think there’s any couple out there that was as dysfunctional as they were. I couldn’t keep count of how many times in just the course of over a year and half they broke up and got back together.

And just as things were looking up between the two, on July 5th, 2017, Rob posted a series of explicit photos of Chyna to Instagram and accused her of cheating on him, doing drugs and neglecting their daughter. Chyna, in turn, took to Snapchat to accuse Kardashian of physical abuse. She said, ‘Rob u did all this but u beat me up and try to act [like] it never happen !!!!! U put hand on me I swear on god !!!!! On my kids but I’m supposed to be quiet because you’re a Kardashian. Despite all the commotion and instability between the two, the former couple still maintained a civil co-parenting relationship. In 2018, Chyna went on to even praise Rob as a father. She told DailyMailTV, ‘You can look into her face and just tell she was made with love. She’s, like, perfect.’ At the same time, Rob filed a motion asking the court to reduce his child support payments, and revealed that he was forced to move back home with his mother as his sick business, Arthur George, the very same business Chyna was worried about him starting back when the starred in their reality series, wasn’t doing well and heavily relied on his mother’s investment to keep the business and his lifestyle afloat. In 2019, Chyna new paperwork against Rob that alleged he wasn’t physically or psychologically harmed during their Christmas 2016 fight. According to documents, Rob had previously admitted that ‘being scratched by a female is one of the best things a man could ask for.’ This was in response to Rob’s own lawsuit that he filed in September 2017 for alleged assault, battery and vandalism.

It’s not even everything. After The Shade Room posted Chyna’s tweets about how she didn’t receive any monetary support from her exes and fathers of her children via Instagram in March 2022, Rob opened up about their custody arrangement and Dream’s schedule. He wrote, ‘I pay 37k a year for my daughter’s school. I handle every single medical expense. I pay for all her extracurricular activities. I have my daughter from Tuesday-Saturday. Why would I pay child support lol?’ Tyga responded to Rob’s tweet, writing that he paid $40,000 a year for his son with Chyna, King’s school and took care of his son Mondays through Saturdays. He then jokingly wrote to Rob, ‘How you pay 3k less. Let me kno [sic] the plug.’

Chyna didn’t get a dime out of her lawsuit against the Kardashian-Jenner family. As for her lawsuit against Rob, the two settled it before jury was selected for an undisclosed amount. Her lawyer said in a statement thereafter to People, ‘Chyna is very pleased that the trial judge denied Rob’s motion to ‘enforce’ a settlement that never existed. Without a settlement, Chyna will prove her case to a Los Angeles jury on June 20 that Rob posted devastating revenge porn of her to millions of his Instagram followers without her consent. Revenge porn is a very dangerous form of violence predominantly perpetrated against girls and women. Victims of revenge porn typically experience serious anxiety, shame, and helplessness. Some revenge porn victims have committed suicide. Rob Kardashian has never taken responsibility for his heinous and vengeful act of posting revenge porn against Chyna in July 2017. He was never criminally prosecuted. It is finally time for Rob to be held accountable in a court of law.’

Rob and Chyna’s daughter, Dream, has been surrounded with nothing but love despite everything throughout the years. She’s been especially close with Khloé, who’s practically EVERYONE’s favourite aunt. As Chyna said herself in one of her recent interviews, it takes a village to raise a child, and it’s no surprise that Dream is so close with Khloe considering how close Rob and Khloe are. It’s safe to say that just as Chyna worked so hard to do, the cycle has been broken in her raising Dream, as well as King. This leads to discuss Chyna’s life with her mom; you know, the one that always made Chyna anxious every time she made an appearance on ‘Rob & Chyna’…

I was intrigued to get to know more about Black Chyna and her life outside anything that had to do with the Kardashian-Jenner family and the mess that came with it. Luckily, I had Chyna’s ‘The Real Blac Chyna’ reality series, which originally ran between July and October 2019 and followed Chyna’s life with her mom, her friends, as well as her employees, to watch for me to do that. I wanted to concentrate on discussing Chyna’s relationship with her mother, Ms. Toni, as seen on ‘The Real Chyna’, because it really transcribed Chyna’s story as a whole. Personally, I think the show was more about Chyna’s relationship with her mother than anything else. It all started in the very first episode of the show. Chyna was contemplating whether or not she should meet with her mom after a long estrangement. Her friend, Treasure, who’d been friends for 13 years by the time of filming, helped her make the decision. Treasure’s mother passed away. It was most interesting when Chyna asked Treasure during her thought process whether it was better or worse to have a mother who was dead, but who you know loved you, or a mother who was alive and well but all she brought to you was stress, drama and agony.

I already know the answer to this. Chyna, however, needed more time spent with her mother to know her own version of the answer to her own question. That being said, she eventually decided to invite her mother to her house to at least try to talk things through. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. As soon as Ms. Toni even walked through Chyna’s door, it was evident that the it was too much to be handled in a civilized manner. Ms. Toni just wasn’t capable of having a civilized conversation with her daughter. She had the old-school mindset of how a relationship between a mother and daughter should look like, which is that a mother can treat their adult child however she wants, and the adult child should respect their mother and provide for her no matter what.

Chyna genuinely wanted to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her mother, but Ms. Toni wasn’t able to give her that. She wasn’t able to give her daughter the love and affection that she was looking for. Their reunion was intense. It was scary. Let’s just say, it’s a good thing there were at least 10 or so people behind-the-scenes to break the two apart. There was screaming. There was yelling. There was micro-aggression. There was inappropriate conduct. There was name-calling. Chyna tried so hard to hug her mother, but Ms. Toni continuously pushed her away. By the end, Ms. Toni threw a shoe at Chyna, and in retaliation, Chyna threw a chair at her.

It was a difficult scene to watch. It brought so much sadness; so much sorrow. I really wanted to hug Chyna all throughout, but especially when she tried to hug her mother and she pushed her away. But it also made so much sense. In 2018, Ms. Toni revealed to the world that Chyna was a mistake. She had her when she was 16 years old; a result of a statutory rape. When I found out about it, the fight between them suddenly made sense – at least to me. It wasn’t an excuse for Ms. Toni’s behaviour. It didn’t make it right by any means whatsoever. But it was an explanation. That fight was a reflection of Ms. Toni’s rape. It was as though she was defending herself from rapist, as she didn’t when the actual event was happening, and in her eyes, Chyna was the rapist.

This mere factor affected Chyna in more ways than she herself ever realized. It affect or her entire life; her relationships with her employees, her friends, her partners (as seen on ‘Rob & Chyna’), and maybe even her children. She was experiencing intergenerational trauma under scrutiny.  Studies actually suggest that mothers with a history of childhood sexual abuse may experience lasting effects in adulthood that, inadvertently, impact their child. These effects are associated with an increased risk that their child will become a victim of sexual abuse. The term itself is used to consider the often traumatic nature of sexual abuse. The concept of a ‘cycle’ refers to the notion that the trauma and its consequences can be transmitted from parent to child. This is exactly what we saw happen on ‘The Real Black Chyna’. In fact, that was the entire premise of the entire show. Generally speaking, these are the effects of intergenerational trauma on the child of the abused mother include:

• Relationship difficulties: Trust issues, conflicts, feelings of stigma or isolation. In intimate relationships, there may be lower relationship satisfaction, avoidance, or overinvestment in sexuality, as well as increased separation or breakups.
• Psychological difficulties: Psychological distress, depressive and mood disorders (e.g., bipolar disorder), dissociation (involuntary separation between the person and reality, often to avoid experiencing distressing emotions associated with traumatic events), etc.
• Neurophysiological sequelae: Excessive or abnormally low levels of stress hormone –  cortisol, alteration of certain brain structures. These sequelae can lead to psychological, relational, and behavioral difficulties.

While I empathized with Ms. Toni while watching that particular scene as a rape survivor myself, I also couldn’t help but feel angry at her. Trauma is intergenerational, but so is healing. She was obviously not in the survivor mentality; at least not back then. She was in the victim mentality, and she was taking her own daughter along for the ride. Her trauma was ruining her life, her daughter’s life, and even her grandchildren’s lives. Chyna tried so hard to mend her relationship with her mother, but all she got in return was the treatment her mother wished she would’ve given her rapist. In hindsight, Ms. Toni was seeing Chyna’s father in… Chyna.

In the first episode of ‘The Real Blac Chyna, we saw that Chyna had three main people in her life – Treasure Thompson, Ashton Levi, and Jamaal Terrance. By the end, she ended up with no one beside her. Her mother kept trying to tell her that she was surrounded by enablers and people who didn’t love her the way that her mother loved her. But these were the people that were trying to help Chyna, and instead got pushed aside; just like Ms. Toni pushed Chyna aside at the very beginning. I feel that it’s also important to note that the story behind the very first scene that we saw unfold on ‘The Real Black Chyna’. Chyna was at an appointment with Treasure and Ashton. While waiting for Chyna, Treasure got a call from her son’s school and was told that her son was going to juvenile detention for 9 months for breaking his probation. She deliberately left the room for privacy, and Chyna told cameramen to follow her. Treasure asked Chyna not to air the scene, but Chyna laughed at her and aired it anyway. If the tables were turned, things would’ve been much different, right? Chyna would’ve made a fit about how people weren’t there for her and only using her.

Over time, it seemed as though Chyna was on the road to become a better version of herself. On the show, we saw her embrace therapy, which she also attended with her mother. In April 2019, Chyna released an open letter to her fans on Instagram. It read as follows, ‘Over the last couple of years, you guys have been given a perspective of who I am from the media and people closest to me. I’ve been Bullied, Humiliated, Manipulated, and Discredit as a mom! Looking Back at A lot of my actions, I’m reflecting and realizing that confusion is a serious thing. Of course I’m not proud of some of the pain that I have caused, and I am working to be the best me. Blac Chyna doesn’t define Angela White as a person. At 30, I am overwhelmed with the blessings I have. Being A mother of two amazing children. I don’t talk on things often, but I promise to give you guys more of me. Angela White Perspective. Thank you for years of endless love. Your support for me is a blessing! Growth is painful. Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as being where you do not belong! #newbeginnings.’

It was a long road for Chyna to really become her authentic self; without the slightest of doubt in herself. But she’s the real epiphany that change is, in fact, possible; that change is inevitable when you put hard work and determination into it. If not for yourself, then for your children. Getting to know of Chyna’s story got me thinking of my own rape story, and how it could affect my son if I don’t continually work on myself and my healing journey. You see, all I want is for my son to have a good life. No, that’s not true. I actually want him to have a GREAT life. Of course, there will be hurdles along the way. But no matter what, I want him to know that he could always lean on his mother for comfort. That’s why it’s so important to me that I work through my trauma so that I don’t end up being as angry as Ms. Toni; so that my son doesn’t end up viewing me the same way as Chyna viewed Ms. Toni did at the time. Though they have a good relationship now, that’s a heck of a lot of years wasted on resentment and bitterness.

And let me be clear: Ms. Toni is very fortunate that Chyna gave her a second chance. A lot of adult children don’t, especially when the parents cause so much damage. I know that my husband went no contact with his father and has absolutely no plans to reunite. Too much damage was caused to him at the hands of his father to repair anything. He’d caused my husband so much pain that he doesn’t refer to him as his father. Instead he refers to MY dad as a father, and each Father’s Day, he thinks of him. So who’s to say that if I don’t work on myself and consistently try to better myself, and my son disowns me because of it, he will give me a second chance? I should be so lucky if he does. I don’t want to have the same relationship with my son that my husband has with his father. I don’t want my son to think of me the same as my husband thinks of his father. That’s why it’s so important for me to not only work on my mental health on a daily basis, but also have him witness me working on my mental health daily. And so, it starts with now. For instance, I started working out on a daily basis. Every morning, I turn on my YouTube channel and start doing my daily, half hour to an hour long dancing routine, and I have my son watch me doing. Then this weekend, before Mother’s Day, my husband and I were fighting in front of our son. There was crying, yelling, name calling; you name it. But I made sure to apologize to my son thereafter, as did my husband, and make up in front of him. I also made sure to explain to him that people fight sometimes, and that’s okay; that it’s a sign of caring; and that it’s most important to apologize when you know you’re wrong and move on. I told him that sometimes I yell, but that doesn’t mean I love him any less. My son hugged me. It was the best Mother’s Day gift EVER.