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Kendrick Lamar stops white fan from using N Word


Metropolis
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Imagine if we had tried to tell the English not to sing Yankee Doodle.

 

There is some serious racial profiling going on with people's reaction to someone saying ******. Maybe I would understand if I had been a slave. Maybe one of those people Kanye was talking about can explain it to me.

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The only people I have ever heard say the full word are racists and middle class white kids trying to be edgy.

 

Since I don't want to be associated with either group, I don't say it.

 

If you want to say it, fine by me. But I'm going to place you in one of those groups.

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We're not even talking about THE N word. We're talking about "Our" N word. The offense is coming with, and I'm saying this sarcastically, white people trying to re appropriate what we made cool. Eminem doesn't use our N word, but he does when he raps with Nas. Nas let him because "Em's my *****". Forget that this view isn't universally accepted by all blacks. Most of us think that if THE word is going to go away, our word has to go away.

 

I'm not alone in this, but do you realize the only people that have called me THE N word to my face have been black people. So I don't care if some white kid wants to sing along to a song laced with our N word.

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The only people I have ever heard say the full word are racists and middle class white kids trying to be edgy.

Since I don't want to be associated with either group, I don't say it.

If you want to say it, fine by me. But I'm going to place you in one of those groups.

The FULL word? Would that be the one that ends with er?

 

If it makes it easier to label a person a racist or a homophobe, god bless. In the meantime I'm going to bed with my black boyfriend.

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We're not even talking about THE N word. We're talking about "Our" N word. The offense is coming with, and I'm saying this sarcastically, white people trying to re appropriate what we made cool. Eminem doesn't use our N word, but he does when he raps with Nas. Nas let him because "Em's my *****". Forget that this view isn't universally accepted by all blacks. Most of us think that if THE word is going to go away, our word has to go away.

 

I'm not alone in this, but do you realize the only people that have called me THE N word to my face have been black people. So I don't care if some white kid wants to sing along to a song laced with our N word.

We're obviously going to have very different life experiences. Your wife has family in southern Ohio, right? In that case, you may understand where I'm coming from. I'm from Central Ohio, but my family is from southern Ohio (paternal and maternal). The area they're from is a depressed small town, and so I grew up with extreme racism.

 

Fortunately, my parents didn't fall into the trap, and I grew up in a predominantly black area. So my racist uncles stood against my life experience.

 

Question - and this is legit, not the typical"I demand proof" question that litters the internet - when you say most realize that "your word" has to go, is this based on personal experience or have there been polls?

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Guest El Chalupacabra

Kendrick has won countless awards, including a Pulitzer. He's not in need of publicity.

I admit I haven't heard of the guy, but the way the article(s) read to me, that seems the case. I am just guessing here, and reall only Kendrick knows for sure. All I can say is how it looks too me. Maybe I am just cynical, but I am not convinced that celebrities in general are not willing to do something like this when they in need of publicity. Staging events that provide attention can and does happen.

 

To be sure, I am not defending this girl. She's totally in the wrong and deserves the criticism. But I also question the situation Kendrick set in place for her to say what she did, and the setting where she said it. And I do firmly believe that the use of the N word should not be used by anyone, unless it is in an educational setting or an artistic setting that is meant to educate people on why it is a word that can be hurtful. But using it in a racist way, or in entertainment like rappers use it under the guise of "taking the word back from racists" or some other mental gymnastics, or society laying down rules of who is allowed and isn't allowed to say it, really should not be going on, IMHO.

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I don't think you can get pissed at someone for "singing" (if you can call it that) lyrics to a song you wrote, regardless of how offensive they are. You've invited someone on stage to participate in reciting your art, then you get mad when she recites it in it's entirety to the letter? That's on you Kendrick. If you didn't want a fuss then why not invite a white middle class girl up on stage to "sing" along to a song that doesn't include that particular word?? Probably because he doesn't have a song that doesn't include the use of that particular word since as a genre trope the "N" word is as common as a casual f bomb in a Tarantino movie.

 

You can't normalise a word with its constant use in a particular art form, that is listened to by people of all races, genders, orientations and socioeconomic class, then get mad when people use that word within the context of reciting the very art that uses said word in the first place. Hip Hop isn't a black only thing anymore, and hasn't been for the better part of 25 years. That ship has well and truly sailed.

 

This "our word not yours" applies in any real world context..just not when your art is full of its use, and you're fine with people of all races engaging and being receptive to your art... Just not this particular word. Well... Don't use that word in your art then.

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We're not even talking about THE N word. We're talking about "Our" N word. The offense is coming with, and I'm saying this sarcastically, white people trying to re appropriate what we made cool. Eminem doesn't use our N word, but he does when he raps with Nas. Nas let him because "Em's my *****". Forget that this view isn't universally accepted by all blacks. Most of us think that if THE word is going to go away, our word has to go away.

 

I'm not alone in this, but do you realize the only people that have called me THE N word to my face have been black people. So I don't care if some white kid wants to sing along to a song laced with our N word.

We're obviously going to have very different life experiences. Your wife has family in southern Ohio, right? In that case, you may understand where I'm coming from. I'm from Central Ohio, but my family is from southern Ohio (paternal and maternal). The area they're from is a depressed small town, and so I grew up with extreme racism.

 

Fortunately, my parents didn't fall into the trap, and I grew up in a predominantly black area. So my racist uncles stood against my life experience.

 

Question - and this is legit, not the typical"I demand proof" question that litters the internet - when you say most realize that "your word" has to go, is this based on personal experience or have there been polls?

Personal experiences and hearing others with the same views talk on the subject.
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I think this story is clearly a publicity stunt on the part of Kendrick Lamar. This white girl is a total moron for using that word (assuming she wasn't a plant in the first place) but I think Lamar intentionally gave her the rope to hang herself, and set her up for failure, for purposes of getting publicity. Honestly, I never heard of this guy until now, but if you google his name right now, the first page or two of search results that come up about him is this story, not his accomplishments.

 

I think where the real debate needs to be is asking where are the leaders of the African American community at, when it comes to denouncing the use of the N word by anyone, be them white or any other color, including members of that community who profit from its use.

I agree with this, more or less. If a song has the n-word in it (why? WHY?), and if the use of that word by white people is a thing to be condemned (I agree entirely that it should be) then why does the writer and main performer of this song invite a white girl on the stage to sing the song in the first place? While the girl shouldn't have said it, I think Lamar ought to step up and take a bit of responsibility here too. He knew the word was in the song, why did he invite a white girl up on stage to sing it if he knew it would be offensive?

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I figured out awhile back that "brother," "sister," and "****er" all scan just fine and make plenty of sense in the context of pretty much any lyric with the N word you can think of, so I decided to sub those in instead.

 

Yeah, it doesn't work that way. I may have the best of intentions, but if my brain learned a song a certain way, changing it up on the fly to sing it is Not Easy. If I were that girl, I would have declined the invitation to come up on stage, because it's pretty clearly a social media nightmare waiting to happen.

 

I say bring back clean versions so I can belt out a rap in public without worrying about offending anyone.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I don't even need to read what everybody else wrote. I know how I feel about this. My favorite song from.Kendrick Lamar used to be 'Real.' Buckle under the pressure of the audience like that and humiliate that girl, doesn't seem very real to me anymore.

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