To think that if you don't want people to use the N word, don't put it in the lyrics of your songs

[PatriarchyPersonified]

Just that really. Kendrick Lamar invited a fan out of the audience at a recent gig to rap along to the lyrics of one of his songs.

The fan (a white lady) repeatedly used the N word, because it's in the lyrics. He stopped her and told her she couldn't say it. She was also booed and abused by the crowd.

🤔

If you don't want people to say a certain word, then don't put it in the lyrics of your songs.

It's either not acceptable, or it's ok. You can't have it both ways.

I personally don't think the N word is an acceptable word to be used full stop, and that doesn't change based on the race of the person using it.

www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44209141

Isn't it racist for a black person to be able to use a word but a white person can't?

I think they're allowed in this case considering the way that word was used towards and about them in the past. Why would a white person even want to use it anyway?

My initial feeling on reading this story was that YANBU.

If little kids start singing along (which they do), at what point do you say 'you [white kid] can't say that' but 'it's ok if you [black kid] do'?

No, if you define racism as prejudice plus power.

But if you have a very limited, dictionary definition of racism that ignores history, culture, society and power structures, then yes. I mean you're wrong but who wants to learn about racism in anything other than a completely surface, one-dimensional way. It's icky. < sarcasm.

Isn't it racist for a black person to be able to use a word but a white person can't

Yeah, most definitely racist

.

Why can a black person sing a song which has the N word in but a white person can't sing the same song??!!

YABVU and actually you can have it both ways because there is a huge difference between white people using a term invented by other white people for the specific purpose of degenerating and abusing people of colour, and people of colour using that term because they have reclaimed it for themselves and use it now as a way of taking back power from a historically oppressive source.

If little kids start singing along (which they do), at what point do you say 'you [white kid] can't say that' but 'it's ok if you [black kid] do'?

That's surely a very unlikely conversation. Standing opposite a white kid and a black kid talking through the finer points of the lyrics of Kendrick Lamar's music.

You could just say to both this mythical set of twins that it's not an appropriate word to use (like fuck, bitch, shit and all the other inappropriate words in songs that kids will hear) for either of them. Because actually it's also not appropriate for black kids to just use it willy nilly- they (black and white kids) need to understand the history behind it. The black kid might then eventually decide it's fine to use the word, which is okay.

YANBU. The lady wasn't using the word in a derogatory context, she was using it in the context of a song lyric. If you don't want the word used then don't write it into your song lyrics and blame people who sing along.

@Angrybird345 it's been explained a couple of times on this thread. Is there something you're not getting?

@LifeBeginsAtGin maybe since you haven't heard of KL you shouldn't make massive assumptions about his work?! For reference he was one of the co-writers of Beyonce's Lemonade which is one of the most overtly feminist albums of all time.

@GalwayWayfarer totally gets it

"If he didn’t want a white person to use the N word, why did he invite a white person onto the stage to sing a song that used it repeatedly?"

White people are still at liberty to enjoy/sing along to the music! He shouldn't have not invited her up there just because of that!
If I'm singing to something with my friends, me and my non black friends most certainly won't say it, and it's not at all hard to just not say the word when it comes up.

I imagine that if she was a fan of KL, she knew his stance on this (and I bet that's what he imagined too!) It's not as if he's private about it.

@MrsTerryPratchett some people will bend over backwards and stick a brick in their eye before they'll learn something that makes them even the smallest bit uncomfortable.

If little kids start singing along (which they do), at what point do you say 'you [white kid] can't say that' but 'it's ok if you [black kid] do'?

Exactly what KL songs are little kids listening to? At least get the clean versions!

@VauxhallVectra high fives back!

Just to add to the "all black people don't have the same view" stuff: I think it is perfectly acceptable for a word to be reclaimed by an oppressed group and used colloquially without other groups being granted the right to use it. It's fine for black people to say the n word to each other.

HOWEVER

Black people using the n word in music which they know is primarily bought by white people is tantamount to giving permission. It's complete hypocrisy and I honestly don't care any more about white people singing it. They want to make money off selling black culture to white people as cool and subversive but then balk at the consequences of it.

It's one thing for black people to say it TO EACH OTHER. It's another to SELL IT TO WHITE PEOPLE and then complain when they say it.

ClaryFray
I totally agree! Why exactly did he pull a white woman on stage to sing the song if he didn't want her to sing the words? Was that a set up?

She was set up to fail really.

I never knew I was supposed to censor myself when singing along in the bath to a song that uses the word and I won't be doing!!

Just to add, all minority groups have some slur that they've reclaimed. There are plenty of Jewish comedians but do they use the word "kk" endlessly to non jews? No. Joke about other stuff. Keep certain words in house.

Sounds like a prize twat tbh

I have no idea who this man is but he sounds like an idiot.

The word is in the song, he invited her on the stage to sing along to the song.

She goes up on stage all excited to be included and he proceeds to humiliate her by pulling her up for singing the song as it is worded. If he didn't want a white woman to sing the song then he shouldn't invite a white woman on stage to sing it. I assume she's not a mind reader and probably didn't realise she'd be offending anyone, given that he asked her to sing it.

Most thinking people would know it's not an acceptable word to use, but she's at a rap singer's gig, they specialise in using inappropriate words and she probably had no idea that saying the n word in these circumstances was a massive faux pas.

So now he's made his point. He sounds delightful.

So, exactly how black do you have to be to use the word then? Is there a reference colour chart or a Pantone reference?

Having ancestors who were stolen from their homelands, sold as property for the use of rich white people and referred to as the "n word" by their owners would qualify you to use the term.

Or, you could check B&Q for a colour chart.

I get all the arguments for why it’s ok for the oppressed to reclaim these slur words, however I think that people also need to try to accept and understand that it’s easy for well meaning white people to get a bit bloody confused about what they can and can’t say.

It WOULD be easier, surely for everyone, if all these perjorative terms were consigned to the ‘never say it’ bin