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

Another high five for @GalwayWayfarer

You're articulating this much better than me.

If this conversation was happening in an actual physical space, I'd be tempted to just lob several copies of Reni Eddo-Lodge's book "Why I'm no Longer Talking to White People About Race" at people's heads and go to the pub.

"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." Not the n word! Easy as that.

Why should black people have to cater their way of standing up to oppression so that white people find it easy to understand? If it's that confusing (which it isn't) be on the safe side and don't say it at all!

Confused as to so many people acting as if Kendrick tried to humiliate the woman. This happens often at concerts and mostly if it's a white person they use their common sense! I think one person above mentioned that man who got a standing ovation (both for his social conscience and his ability to rap as fast as Nicki Minaj! )

Oh come on, she’s a teenage girl, excited to be pulled up on stage by a singer she obviously likes. I doubt if she gave it a lot of thought, she just sang along to the song.

I also think that this woman was being set up for humiliation. There seems to be, at the moment, a rather disturbing trend of misogyny surfacing in 'progressive' politics, which involves active malevolence towards white women.

And no, I don't 'support the right' of white people to use racial slurs in public, but I can see how this woman might have done so out of ovrer-excitement rather than being a closet racist.

Also, people saying she was set up to fail - when I'm listening to rap music I don't even say the n word when I'm singing alone in my own car. So I don't accept that she couldn't have decided not to sing it on stage. If she's a fan of the culture the least she can do is respect this incredibly simple and fundamental part of it.

No, sorry, can't get on board with that one. It was in the lyrics. He asked people to sing along to the lyrics. She sang it. He should have picked a different track if he didn't want people singing that word.

@VauxhallVectra that sounds much more fun, let's do that!

@Angrybird345

Because racism is a one way street now days. If the victim is white it isn't racism, which is crap. Racism can be both ways, but we as a society have become to afraid to say it.

Also I know plenty of PoC who use they term Greydon to describe white people, just as offensive as the n word. But total silence on that.

IMHO he knew she would sing the N word , he chose the song he knew the lyrics . It was nothing to do with race or actually the N word , it was to do with him being a man and putting this woman down IMHO.

Why did he invite her up to rap along if she wasn’t allowed to say the lyrics??

What was she meant to do?

Prejudice + power=racism

Prejudice - power= prejudice.

He should have picked a different track if he didn't want people singing that word.

No. She should have chosen not to say the n word if she didn't want people to think she was racist. This isn't a brand new fad that she wasn't quite caught up on - it has been unacceptable for the entire time I have been alive for white people to say that word.

"Oh come on, she’s a teenage girl" - is she? (Not being snide - I was under the impression she was a fully grown woman. Still not acceptable IMO, but makes 'excitement' a little more plausible.)

"also think that this woman was being set up for humiliation. There seems to be, at the moment, a rather disturbing trend of misogyny surfacing in 'progressive' politics, which involves active malevolence towards white women." I think what you are perhaps noting is white women were often scrutinised less for racism because they also belong to an oppressed group, and this is changing thanks to a sudden rise in racism scandals involving white women. "BBQ Becky", that woman who called the police because some black people didn't smile at her, and that hideous reinvention of "This is America" suddenly has white feminists being called out a lot more often and being treated with a lot more hostility.

I've been listening to NWA and others for decades. I never sang the n-word. Not even when alone. I was young once.

The sexism stuff may be true but the bloke didn't rap the n-word. He chose not to.

What was she meant to do? Sing the song without the "n word". Not hard.

@ClaryFray Racism isn't just about being mean or discriminatory to a group of people based on their colour. That's part of it but racism is rooted in historic power structures of oppression. White people have never, ever been oppressed by blacks.

Terms that blacks might have for whites like "greydon" aren't rooted in colonial and imperialist structures and absolutely don't carry the same weight as, for example, the "n word"

@GalwayWayfarer

Yeah, let's do that. First round's on me

Terms that blacks might have for whites like "greydon" aren't rooted in colonial and imperialist structures and absolutely don't carry the same weight as, for example, the "n word"

This!!!

@VauxhallVectra

Just to clarify that "greydon" is in no way "just as offensive as the n word"

Can't believe I've just had to clarify that on a forum full of fully grown adults.

@nancy75

No come on, she was clearly being racist.

I mean she's right at the front of the stage enjoying a black man performing and knows all the words to his songs. Obviously just a really well prepared racist bigot. How dare she.

@VauxhallVectra

So a white person can't be offended to be called a greydon because it isn't rooted in history? Right both words are wrong and shouldn't be used. But you can't have it both ways it's either wrong so artists need to stop producing it in their content or, it's fine. It can't be both ways.

Actually white people are currently being oppressed by a small group of PoC like those who say ALL white people should pay them money to apologize for slavery. However there is a person alive today who owned a slave in the Weston world. Threads on here previously that a white people are to shut and listen because there opinions are worth less on some topics. That is wrong too.

Also, Kendrick Lemmar brought a white fan on stage to sing a song that has the word in the hook, 4 times alone. He set her up.

I also think that this woman was being set up for humiliation. There seems to be, at the moment, a rather disturbing trend of misogyny surfacing in 'progressive' politics, which involves active malevolence towards white women. Exactly. Easy target, supposed to wilt in shame because of her "privilege", never mind that she is part of the most oppressed and victimised group of human beings in the past and present (and, with the way things go, future)

So let's make a deal: he never say the B word and we will condemn all use of the N word. That's fair, no?

If she can't say nigga, he can't say bitch.

She was set up to fail.

White people have never, ever been oppressed by blacks.
Tell that to the Corsican and the Mediterranean people...

Prejudice + Power = Racism

Sorry, no.

Prejudice based on skin colour or ethnicity = Racism

This argument has come up here before.

Prejudice + Power is a 'stipulative definition'. It is valid in some cases and for some specific examples.

Hedging in racism so that prejudice + power is the only possible definition is bollocks I'm afraid, and shows you have a clear bias.

There's a rapper called Greydon Square.