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

So MrsTP, you feel the best way to combat the historical injustice and double standard is to apply a whole new one, in the opposite direction?

Right.

FFS spelling.

@PatriarchyPersonified you are being willfully ignorant. And you bloody know it.

I don't get to say what the best way to combat historical injustice is because I'm not Black. If KL or Dr Dre or NWA want to reclaim the term, that is up to them, and it certainly doesn't make it OK that a white person uses it to join in.

In the same way that the q word was fairly successfully reclaimed by gay people.

And you can use the word if you'd like. I will continue to assume that white people using that word are doing it because they care very little about historical injustices. And I 'know' you from feminism threads. You do care very little for historical injustices.

@MrsTerryPratchett we've got a seat saved for you! And a large

Whose round is it?

I think the intention of the person using the word has to be taken into account. If the lady in the OP had used the N word as an insult, then yes that would be definitely racist and shouldn't be tolerated. But in the situation described by the OP, the white lady had been invited on to the stage to sing along, which she did. It sounds to me as if they were looking for an opportunity to accuse her of racism and create a scene. Otherwise, why invite her to sing along in the first place, knowing that the N word was part of the lyrics.

I agree that she should have avoided singing along at that point. But there's no way she was thinking at that point that she wanted to inflict racial abuse. She very likely wanted the ground to open up and swallow her, it's definitely how I would have felt in that situation.

I'm not being wilfully ignorant MrsTP I'm repeating back to you what you are saying and questioning it.

You are happy for black people to use the N word as they see fit because {reasons}, but you are not happy for white people to use it under any circumstances, even when repeating a song lyric in context. And you think that this restriction on white people based on nothing other than the colour of their skin is fair.

Meanwhile I think that no-one should use the N word, because it's a horrible racial slur regardless of the ethnicity of the person using it.

Who out of the two of us is being unjust?

He's a dickhead, poor woman. He can call himself what he likes imo, but he shouldn't include it in lyrics and encourage someone to sing his songs on stage. He invited her to sing his song, that's in his song.

Reclaiming control? Roll eyes. I'm not white btw but I'd never use a word to describe my kind just to be in my own special club. This is the 21st century. Leave the past in the past!

And I had some black colleagues. The reverse racism I heard from them would blow your mind. As well as one of them blaming his colour for not getting a promotion and telling me not to marry DH because he's white.

.Have not read full thread.

But if, as you say, Kendrick called someone up to the stage to rap along to one of his lyrics, then I don't see why they couldn't use it. It's not as if they made up their own song and added the word.

I personally think intention matters.

I went to hip hop karaoke a couple of years ago which sounds like a disaster and partly was (think middle aged white man attempting Eminem) but there were some amazing performers up too. Anyway, a couple of white performers did have to ask beforehand if it was acceptable to use the N word within the rap and as it’s there in the rap, it was ok to use.

KL has been ridiculous. Why invite a white person up to rap alongside him if he would be offended at her using a word he prolifically uses throughout most of his songs? Was she supposed to just censor that out? Poor woman as well, I bet she felt humiliated.

Was she supposed to just censor that out well, obviously, yes she was. Though it might have helped if KL had clarified that first, as he was the leader in the situation.

Ridiculous.

So he calls a woman on stage, gets her to rap HIS lyrics and then humiliates her?!

He is a misogynistic dickhead who gets kicks from putting women in their place. (But then look at a lot of rap lyricw about women. It's not surprising).

Sorry if that sounds strong but he knew EXACTLY what he was doing by manufacturing that situation.

I think it was incredibly unfair for her to be asked up on stage specifically to sing along to those lyrics if he had an issue with her using the word.
In general I believe it's fine for black people to use but not white people but in this case she was set up to fail.
The cynical me believes it might have been deliberate.

I would never use the N word. But that's completely ridiculous to ask her to sling along, then tell her she can't say one of the words of the song.

As a famous black man with a high profile, there are so many more positive things he could have chosen to do to fight racism & inequality - what a prick.

Kendrick Lamar was an absolute arsehole here. If "nigger" is good enough for his lyrics, then the girl was right to sing them to the full. At his invitation.

Utter utter twat.

Or should I say "T" word?

It's a song lyric, he invited her up on stage to sing along to his song, and when she did he moaned. Either use the word or don't. But the monopoly on the word doesn't belong to that group of people. Obviously if she'd have got on stage and started saying it, when there was no need.

But she can't sing along to a song because she is white. There is racism going on in that scenario but not from the white woman.
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ALL OF THIS*

I agree with op don't use the word in songs if u find it soo offensive !!!

He was an ass. He invites a fan on stage who has paid money to see him and no doubt paid money for his music and then makes a fool of her. He is used to being on stage in front of thousands she was not so probably nervous and intimidated. She did what she thought was required of her and then gets slated. Not a nice person imo. You can argue the rights and wrongs of a white person using the "n" word until the cows come home but in this situation he was a bully.

On a side note what about all the very sexist misogynistic phrases littered through rap songs mainly sung by men pot kettle black