My good friend and author Adam Mansbach often lectures about white privilege and the types of transgressions he sees white kids making within Hip Hop. He recounts the days, not so long ago when he was coming up and what it was like being part of the majority culture but being a distinct minority within Hip Hop. This positioning forced him to deal with certain types of realities he would in most cases have overlooked, including the ways he engaged a culture he was drawn to, but knew wasn’t tied to his immediate roots.
There was a certain type of respect one had and lines one didn’t cross, even as a participant, (Mansbach was an emcee before a writer). Mansbach points out today there are many white kids who have grown overly comfortable, to the point that they show up in your living room and put their dirty feet upon the coffee table with no concern as to how that looks, who it offends and what folks have to do to clean the table that they just soiled.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Seeing how this saga with actress Gwyneth Paltrow is playing out, definitely makes me think of Mansbach words. Here’s an actress who obviously loves Hip Hop. From what we gathered she’s fond of hanging out with some of Hip Hop’s biggest stars, Jay-Z, Kanye, The Dream and Nas to name a few and with that has come that comfortably Mansbach noted of putting one’s dirty feet upon on the living room table..
This is not so much about Paltrow tweeting the title of a song ‘Niggas In Paris‘ and pointing out her friends Jay-Z and Kanye were those ‘Niggas for Real‘, it’s about her being dismissive to the concerns people had of her using the word.. This was eloquently pointed out by Q-Tip in his response to all this in a series of tweets…
Adding insult to injury are all the passes Hip Hop’s elite have been giving her.. Initially we had The Dream rushing to her defense, saying he was the one who tweeted the offensive words via Paltrow’s account.. After he caught a lot of flack, he recanted his story..Now we have Nas of all people riding hard for Paltrow saying he’ll ‘slap the shyt out of anyone on her behalf.’.
In his defense of Paltrow Nas also adds: “She’s the homie, she’s cool. Gwyneth gets a pass. Real people get a pass..” He goes on to refer to Paltrow as a ‘real nigga‘..
When I first heard this I thought to myself is this the same Nas who did the song Coon Picnic (These are Our Heroes) where he goes in on Kobe Bryant, Cuba Gooding Jr and Taye Diggs accusing them of ‘cooning’..
Nas accused Tiger Woods of cooning for defending a racist white women reporter
When asked about that song and why he went after Tiger Woods, Nas explained that Tiger was ‘flawed‘ for not checking a white female sportscaster named Kelly Tilghman who made a lynching joke.. Basically Nas was upset Tiger gave this woman a pass so to speak.. You can peep that interview HERE
Its ironic knowing that Nas has seriously gone after Black folks for allowing racially insensitive remarks and behavior to go unchecked and here he is going above-board to defend Paltrow. Was he doing that because that’s really the homie or did she ask him to step up on her behalf? I only ask because there are lots of folks who are friends of Nas who get dissed for a variety of reasons and you don’t see such an impassioned defense coming from him.. Why Paltrow? It certainly appears to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black…I like Nas.. I like his a lot. I think the recent projects he’s undertaken have been incredible, but this stuff here with him defending Paltrow is pure ignorance..
In any case it’ll be interesting to see if Paltrow steps to folks defense when and if they start catching heat for crossing any of the various fault lines in Hollywood. ..Will Paltrow who is part Jewish offer passes for any of her rap friends if they say something that is perceived as anti-Semitic? Will she ride hard for folks the way they did for her if they say something that is offensive to women?
As far as giving out passes, I gotta wonder if Nas is green-lighting Paltrow to use the N word who else is giving out passes? Are Black cops saying its ok for their white counterparts to use the word? Y’all may recall just minutes before an unarmed Oscar Grant was killed by a police officer here in Oakland, he was called a bitch ass nigga by that officer’s partner..
Are there Black Tea Party members green-lighting the N word for their white members? We’ve seen all the racially charged signs and heard the racially insensitive rhetoric…Did these people get passes? That’s just a thought for us to consider..
Is Ms Paltrow real enough to help out someone like Marissa Alexander and the injustice she’s recieving?
As I noted earlier, Nas said Paltrow is a ‘real nigga‘ .. Not sure what that means, but I assume it’s someone who endures the day-to-day struggles and challenges heaped on folks because of their darker hue. Some of those challenges may including racial profiling resulting in police practices like Stop-N-Frisk, to mass incarceration as a result of disparaging sentencing guidelines that have disproportionately targeted African Americans..We all know the case of Marissa Alexander a Black woman given the outrageous sentence of 20 years for defending herself against an abusive husband..
This year we as Black folks have been challenged with a rash of outright racially motivated vigilante killings such as what took place in Sanford, Florida with Trayvon Martin or in Tulsa, Oklahoma where white men hunting down Blacks in a killing spree. It was just last week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin we had an 75 year old racist white man gun down an innocent 13 year old named Darius Simmons in front of his mother…How is Ms Paltrow being a ‘real nigga‘ in these struggles?
Is Paltrow a real nigga in the sense that’s she’s down in the trenches fighting the good fight to end these incidents and practices or is she in the hood making a change which is what Nas demanded that real niggas do in his Coon Picnic song? So called Real Niggas I know are under the gun full time 24/7. One out of 4 so called real niggas is living below the poverty line. Is Ms Paltrow rolling with the community to help address that? Only time will tell if Paltrow is part-time with this thing.. You can listen to Nas’ full remarks on thisthing by clicking the link below..
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
I thank God this happened! Maybe now some of us will WAKE UP!
You don’t have to be black to be a nigga. And as long as WE as black people continue to say only WE can be niggas, we’ll have this issue.
Nigger was negative, we made nigga to defeat it.
Now we can either move on from arguing about this same old issue, or we can begin to collectively focus or serious buisness such as class discrimination, the prison slave system, and the corruption of the government.
Blacks saying ONLY black people can say this word, is no different than Whites saying only white people can use certain water fountains.
lol @ “Mansbach points out how today there are many white kids who have grown overly comfortable”. I think a better way to phrase it is there are simply more white kids that intuitively see through this bullshit called “HipHop”. In short, they put all this nonsense in it’s proper place by default – which is a light hearted joke. That’s all it is. If you want something more then get away from this nonsense and go get it. The stupidity of the ghetto is expressing itself out in the open via music, youtube and everything else. It’s actually the stupidity of the young and the vanity of U.S. culture altogether, but HipHop is another expression of this. Even talking about Nas,Tiger Woods etc just shows how much of a joke this is. Who cares about these people. You might as well do a write up on Lady Gagas hair. lol
I take issue with white liberals all the time for getting too comfortable and saying something out of line but I just can’t agree with y’all here. Everyone is coming off as too sensitive. I’m glad Nas came to her defense. If you ask me, this is clearly a generational issue. Older people don’t like the N word in any form, okay I get it. However young people don’t have the same stigma surrounding it. If someone says the -er version, nobody is giving anybody a pass, but to quote a song and make a comment in jest is harmless. I’m glad she doubled down on her comments. Was she suppose to cower in fear because some people overreacted and took her words the wrong way? No. Get over it. Young people are moving forward. No more wallowing in the past. If a REAL situation comes that needs to be addressed, then appropriate measures will be taken.
I am so tired of the backwards thinking that makes some blacks think it okay for Paltrow to get away with such speech. If you want to argue that blacks shouldn’t use the word, go on, make your case. But spare me whack comparisons that have nothing to do with speech.
My sensitivity with the notion of non-blacks using the n-word (in all its forms) is the SAME sensitivity white people feel when people NOT named Jeff Foxworthy call them “rednecks” or “crackers.” It’s the SAME sensitivity Latinos feel when people not named Carlos Mencia call them “beaners” or “wetbacks.” It’s the SAME sensitivity Asians felt when that ESPN reporter wrote “chink” in reference to a story about Jeremy Lin.
Every demographic in America has societal lines in terms of speech that they don’t like seeing crossed by other demographics. But black people are the ONLY ones who have to constantly defend our right to establish those “lines” when it comes to our community. Which doesn’t get any easier when fools like Nas dismiss our right to this form of agency.
And it’s this dismissive notion of black agency by blacks themselves that has more to do with being ignored when it comes to those other problems than whether some ignorant white chick gets her rocks off using insulting speech. Why should anybody CARE what we think about the prevalence of racism in the criminal justice system when we can’t even come together to demand respect over others’ use of a single word? SMH…
If this guy Davey D is a real writer why are there so many typos in his article? Some words mean more than just the literal. Nas is part of the very essence of what hip-hop really is…His music has inspired two whole generations. As an artist he is as reak as it gets, as a man I don’t know him. Again as a representation of hip-hop…he is a “Real Nigga”
whatever sy. You’re stuck on stupid. Period. Racism should be as prehistoric as dinosaurs by now. Why you trying to keep it alive????????
actually….. I believe Davey D been typing for a min. But either way. Whites piss him off or he likes to piss off blacks????
This is rediculous. Nas has gotten to comfortable. OK Gweneth was repeating the name of the song, YOu cant fault her for that. BUT she knows, along with everyone else, Her repeating the name of the song was an excuse to say the word Nigger and get away with it. SORRY Gwen, you did not get away with it, I hang out with all races, We as a minority people who’s ancestors suffered in this country must never let NIGGER coming from other races, ever be comfortable.
I’m a young black man and I hate the N-word. It is mired in negativity and it makes us look foolish as black people to continue to use it when talking to one another. Words are powerful and the fact that black people were robbed of the knowledge of themselves by whites during slavery and THEN CALLED NIGGER by the same whites until we thought that is what we were shows that many of us still have to let that mind of mental death go. 2pac coming up with an acronym for the word doesnt change that hatred and stigma that the word still carries since racism is still prevalent in amerikkka. Because these rappers in their ignorance use that word in their music, whites listen to the music and think it is ok to start saying the word. I miss the days when intelligent rappers like Chuck D, Krs One, and Rakim were the dominant force in Hip Hop
“Nigger was negative, we made nigga to defeat it.” O_o
Why do black people insist on ownership of the word that they did not create? Black people are more concerned about preserving this word than they are voting, educating their children, working to defeat crime in their neighborhoods, etc.
This word has nothing to do with generational barriers. It was a word created to demean and debase the black community. Why keep it alive in the first place?
Whites, nor blacks, should get a pass for using the word. I’ve always been a huge fan of Nas, but he gets the Coon award for this one. But why would he speak against Jay-Z’s friend, since he is the one who signed him to Def Jam. Nas seems to be doing whatever it takes to make sure he has great album sales and co-signing with one of the biggest rappers (of this time) in rap to insure that he does, is no surprise.
This really makes no sense. If many black ppl including rappers like Q-Tip for years have been saying to Oprah and other critics of it’s frequent use that “it doesn’t mean the same as it once did”, “we’re saying it with an ‘a’ not ‘er'” or that they’re trying to turn it into something positive so the word doesn’t hurt anyone. AND if you’re going to say it in your art to the world at large regardless of race or nationality, not just the black community then why are you upset when white ppl use it? You can’t say “it’s our word you can’t use it” if you make a song called “N*ggas In Paris” and push it a big song on the radio (Playing it multiple times in concerts to many many white fans). She referenced the song, she also censored letters (Which nobody seems to mention) but she didn’t direct it at anyone or say it in a negative way whats so ever. What was she suppose to write? “______ In Paris”? How you do you say that? Face it, the black community has to reflect and come to a census on this. There’s a whole generation of black and white kids who know that word more as a term of endearment than a racist one and it seems some aren’t ready for that progression even if they have no problem using it. Although it’s nice to have this “For Us By Us” mentality, realistically it’s not possible if your audience isn’t just that community. You can’t pretend hip hop is a black thing anymore, it’s a world wide phenomenon and unless everyone is going to check themselves than nobody should have to.
This article is really good. Have you seen Lady Gagas newest outfit? I hear Nas is dating Keishshawnspears !!! Can’t wait to eat a Burger King bacon ice cream!
I’M keeping racism alive? LOL! Alright then, chinkhonkey, if I’m the supposed reason why racism lives, explain to me how giving Gweneth a pass here ENDS racism. Better yet, explain how this so-called “positive” use of the word ending in “a” has been working out for us. Positively, that is…
Say what you want, but back in the day when blacks demanded more respect for our own agency, you didn’t see all these states passing Jim Crow 2.0 laws like “stand your ground” and “stop and frisk” to justify assaults on black bodies. The day I see “real nigga”-loving whites step up to do something about these REAL issues, maybe I’ll have a change of heart, but until then, spare me this notion of how much more evolved you are because of how happy you feel about CERTAIN whites using such language.
Because the truth of the matter is that if Rush Limbaugh tweets about the “niggas” tomorrow, none of you will be in here talking about how warm and fuzzy you feel about HIS use of the word. In ANY context.
this is how it goes. jay z and kanye white a song. they call it ‘niggas in paris’. gwyneth paltrow parties with them or whatever , gets a photo, goofs on it at face value on her tweet. everything after it is reflect on where peoples heads are at. all said and done, it is widely understood that there are a lot of white hip hop fans and they buy the records, the accessories and yes–they speak the language.
I’m am so sick of Black people saying “no one should say the N word. black people shouln’t say the N word.” That is not the subject. Lets handle that one on a later date people. I don’t give a fuck who you are. If you are not African American and you use Nigga or Nigger in my presence you are getting the side eye, a smirk, smdh, and a under breath comment that is loud enough to hear. I won’t put my hands on you but you’re definitely gonna get my drift. I hate when Hispanics do it, Asians, especially Whites, Etc. You only use the term because you want to be down with Black people or be Black when it is convienant. I said it a million times. Take your own derogatory racial slur and flip it. Before hip hop was even around Black people used that term as a form of endearment. All those black celebrities in the 60s and 70s had tons of non black friends and fans that knew better to use that word. Because we don’t want to ruffle feathers and be labeled as rude, having attitudes (which we are labeled as having anyway) we let a lot of people slip that word in and didn’t check them in the 90s and moving forward. Hip Hop is dominated by African American men. It is Black culture. If the KKK marched through Harlem right now screaming kill all Niggers/Niggaz how many non African Americans would defend us or be offended? None. Dream…keep dreaming. Zimmerman may not have called Trayvon’s a nigga but he called him a fucking COON and then killed him. Russell…as long as you fuck white young pussy you’re irrelevant to me. Do your yoga to stay alive and shut the fuck up. OMG on Nasir Jones. I hope your Nigga Paltrow buys that new album and pays your tax debt up for you because I certainly won’t. I see why your wife left that dress behind. The funny thing is what is the common denominator of the people defending Paltrow? BLACK MEN. Some Black men with money are completely useless. Thank goodness that Q Tip had the balls to speak out or i would have completely sperated from rap. I must hear Jay Z and Kanye’s responses. IT’S A MUST. Kanye has an opinion on eveything but this. Paltrow is wrong plain and simple and she should apologize via twitter instead of defending it. How about tweeting ” Crackers and Kikes in Paris Too” cause that’s what she is. That shit Cray.
This bothers me as a white girl who IS down, and who IS fighting the good fight. I even switched my major to polisci in college and plan to go to law school primarily to defend people of color and poor people in general from being abused by a for-profit prison system. My boyfriend is black, and my kids will be mixed, but I don’t see that as giving me a special privilege in the black community – my efforts in blogging, local activism, and my eventual law career will prove my willingness to fight for full freedom and equality. Now, I personally never use the n word in any form or context, because that’s not me. I did have a number of friends upstate who were white who did, though, but never as a hurtful term – just young people slang for ‘homie.’ I might not approve, mainly because it is slung around to the point that it stereotypes the user in a negative way, but I don’t think it’s used in a hurtful way by many of today’s kids and their black friends don’t seem to mind. It was startling the first time I saw white and hispanic kids using it to call on each other, because it seemed to have completely transcended race, and wasn’t being used in a derogatory fashion. While I will never, ever be comfortable saying it, comparing Paltrow’s tweet to jokes about lynching or calling Mexicans ‘wetback’ is unfair because it’s not like her intent was negative to begin with. This is a complicated issue, for sure, but I think this particular case it’s over-analyzed.
@driveswift.. in the article, I referenced what q-Tip noted about this..yes, she had no ill intent, but was dismissive when folks raised hell about it.. Not only was she dismissive she allowed folks to lie about it on her behalf..I also noted that many other groups don’t give u a pass ever.. ill intent or not.. I once had the ADL come at me sideways bc of something a guest on my radio said..about Palestine living in an Apartheid state.. They wrote letters called me anti-semitic, said I didn;t do enough to correct the guest.. I had a collegue who was fired for saying something they deemed out of pocket.. Roland Martin was suspended w/o pay for more than a month for making a joke about David Beckham .. they said he was encouraging violence against gays..No passes given..
Paltrow knew better..she got comfortable and people called her on it..
LMAO at Shawna… You think she was waiting for an excuse to say that shit? That is a patently idiotic conclusion. As if she’s some closet KKK member, waiting to sneak out her hate at the most opportune moment… i.e. while at a rap concert? Seriously, what tiny little post-reverse racism bubble are you living in?
Reblogged this on Maintaining Your World.
Davey D, If anybody you should be going off at is Kanye and Jay-Z. They the one who did that song and titled it the way they did. They the ones who made Niggas In Paris a cool phrase for the rest of the world. How do you expect the title of the song to be referred to by the rest of the world thats not “black” so to speak? Whatever the context, like for an example, the entertaiment industry, how you expect white people in such places to refer to the song? How you expect young white kids from somewhere in Europe to refer to that song? This is ridiculous, im finding it hard to even contextualise this without feeling like im sounding silly but I hope you get where im going with this. The real problem, if this nigga word is such a problem, is those two Niggas In Paris, Kanye and Jay-Z.
Nas may have said or done some ignorant shit from time to time but Dave I think you missed the point on this one. I read your article before i listened to Nas’ audio clip I was suprised to not find the ignorance in what you said he said, at least not in the context in which you’ve interpreted it.
This whole thing is bs man. anyway…
Peace, Love and Respect.
Or your first question.. How do u expect people to say the song title..The same way the deejays on major networks and radio do… They don’t.. How did folks refer to Richard Pryors albums back in the days? They didnt say the word.. It used to be a joke where they dared white folks to say the word which is one reason why they used the title…
As for Nas..He said he’d slap the shyt out of someone for Ms Paltrow..He also called her a real nigga.. and gave her a pass.. When Tiger Woods refused to go after a reporter for making a joke, he did a song about him calling him a coon..Seems abit hypocritical.. As far as Ye and Jay.. I been critical of that album since it came out including the title of that song..
Nigga, nigger etc.,Doesn’t matter how it’s spelled. Once ignorant black people started using it as a term of endearment and littering songs with it, it set the stage for whites. Your chickens have come home to roost so stop whining! I’m black and I don’t use the word in any form and I feel sick to my stomach when I hear other black people use it. We are our biggest enemy and we alone will be the cause of our extinction.
Appreciate the response though we’ll never agree on this. I just wont make it back and forth thing cause I got nothing to achieve from that.
ps: for rest of those who like the song but cant say the word, I suggest, “Obamas In Paris” 😀
Real Talk Davey D! I was a fan of Nas…now I’m seeing it was more for his production choices and flow more than words. I can say that as I saw how easily he shifted within 2 albums specifically “Illmatic” to “it Was Written.” So I noticed that Nas is not thoro. He seems to provide verbiage only when he feels he’s an authority on something. He said Hip Hop is dead along with the other harsh criticisms of other famous peers of his. Going forward, I personally feel the real inside Nas is dead and he needs to holla @ the resurrector to get a fuckin pass to comeback to life…..
In regards to Paltrow…I know that white culture has no choice but to be attracted to our natural gifts and abilities…anyone thinking I’m exaggerating just research history…..but I expect this sort of air-brained stuff from her type. High profile Hollywood star, blonde, knows absolutely nothing about Hip Hop culture (shown clearly by her open usage of the word). I’m not surprised at all by her actions…everyone has to look at it this way. If it was a mere 10 years ago…probably more like 5-6 years ago nobody would have known she said it as it would have just been verbiage backstage or whatever. But due to the social media (Twitter in this case) her words got out to the world…..Like I said I’m not at all surprise by Gwyenth “Cracker in America” Paltrow. It’s Nas and all others defending her that I frown upon. Good thing the social media allows us to burn music now….no more $ going to his pockets for those preachy lyrics @ least from me….I can just burn it listen to it then send it to the recycle bin…word.
This is just another example of “celebrity” overtaking someone”s mindset. I love Nas’ music and how he has always spoken for those of us living in the hood, but I wonder if he wasn’t a celebrity and was still living in the ‘hood’ would he still be down with Gweneth’s statement.
How strange. We defeat oppression by adopting its language. But that delusion does not deter the destruction of black youths’ futures by branding them as felons without good reason. It does not end the denial of educational opportunities for so many black children and does not stem the ever increasing marginalization of more and more of our people by consigning them to a lifetime of invisible poverty. Yet, we counter by calling ourselves the name they gave us to define us as their victims. We will stop using the Nword when we reject white supremacy. Until then, the word will continue to serve as a psychological shackle that helps us accept inferiority and keeps us from demanding our due.
Boooooooooring……………!!!!!! Nas is stillmatic, hip hops greats! AND everyone knows Gweneth is not with the kkk and the last thing she was trying to do is offend the negros who got offended. If you’re still getting offended in 2012 by this you should… The most ignorant people today who use the term in mainstream media today in the worst way happen to be African American, Black, Negro, Niggas, or whatever it is we’re called today anyway so everybody needs to get over it
Malik Nas shouldve kept his mouth shut or simply said, Paltrow is his friend, meant no harm and moved on.. He’s the one that said he’d slapp the shyt out of folks and called her a real nigga and issued a pass.. If that’s how he feels well alrighty lets bring it on.. Illmatic or not.. It was an ignorant thing to say, especially since Paltrow sat up there and allowed people to lie on her behalf.. Q-Tip expressed in rightly.. What we need to get offer is go all out to defend the priviledged who do wrong including using a word that obviously still has strong meaning for many.. Let me or someone call her himie, abe or JAP.. suddenly those words wouldn’t be just words.. ask Jesse Jackson who still apologizing 25 years later.. Paltrow was wrong, should’ve owned up,apologized and moved on..
@ Malik Lomax…so Blacks shouldn’t be offended by the usage of the word nigger/nigga in 2012? Should we not be offended by Kramer from Seinfeld when he told those 2 Black men “40 years go we had you upside down with a fork stuck up your ass”. It was only 40 years ago. I use the word when I am amongst my African Americn peers. I get highly upset when others races use that word. I have heard several homosexuals use their slur as a term of endearment and I understand that if someone out of their circle uses the same term they take it offensively. The same as Bitch For women. Bitch transcends to EVERY RACE OF WOMEN. Some hate when women use it and some don’t but it’s our decision as women. The same thing goes for the N Word. It’s FUBU. For us and now By us. Only us. Furthermore this subjuect should not be open for discussion. Not one white celebrity has defended her. Not one woman celebrity has defended her. Only black males. What does this say about you all that give her the thumbs up. The bitch was out of line and still hasn’t apologized.
@Malik. what about Coon? That’s what Zimmerman called Trayvon Martin.
It just dawned on me, to people who like to say the vindicate n-word, because there s a difference between ”nigga” vs. ”nigger”. So does that mean there is a difference between the word Koon vs, Coon?…..
Interesting, some of y’all bought up how only black males, seems to step up and defend Paltrow using the word…similar to how certain black men stepped up to defend V-Nasty for using the word…because this is something I’ve noticed, that I wanted to address…is it me or is it that in mainstream media brothas seem to have more of a voice regarding the topic of the usage of the n-word than the sistas?
Big ups to Q-Tip and Davey D for once again, giving us some food for thought and highlighting some serious issues. However, I have to FIRST ask this: when will WE CHOOSE (two key words, y’all) to stop using the word nigga/-er/uh/-ah as a term of endearment? While I am mad at Paltrow, I am even more upset at the BLACK fools rushing in to her defense, as well as at Kanye and Jay-Z. I am no fans of Jay (never have been and probably never will be), and used to like Kanye when he first came out – when he did that interview in ESSENCE calling Sistas dogs and saying they weren’t pretty enough to be in videos, I could already see what was coming from several miles away.
However, as many have said before me, if the shoe was on the other foot, and if someone (say like Chuck D or Paris) did a song about something that ACTUALLY HAPPENED (as opposed to the materialistic bullshit lyrics of Jay and Kayne’s song in question) say, like during the Euro 2012 when a bunch of racist white europeans greeted Black Soccer Players with monkey noises, and what if Chuck and Paris used epithets for whites in said song (which in the case of what happened, said epithets would actually be applicable – read here:http://hinterlandgazette.com/2012/06/euro-2012-begins-racist-chants-monkey-noises-aimed-black-dutch-players-training.html ), just how many whites would rush to Chuck and Paris’ defense? On top of that, just how many of US would rush to their defense???? How many of us would thank Chuck and Paris for bringing an issue to light, and how many of us would condemn Chuck and Paris???
In closing, When it comes to the words “nigga” and “nigger” and all other derivatives of that word, it’s like this: if you take a piece of pork, and then sautee it one day, fry it the next, and barbeque it the third, regardless of the different ways of preparing it, there’s one thing that is irrefutable – it’s still ALL PORK and still comes from the same damn place – a dirty, nasty, pig – and it will still clog your arteries.
A racist can be a racist behind closed doors. Having NO KNOWLEDGE OF SELF causes black people problems forever. So uncle tom buffons come running when massa fucks up and lets his/her hatred for blacks come out. I don’t use the word and never will!!!!! Anways Fuck Hollyweird and racist zionist jews and punk ass ignorant sellout brothas and sistas who are mentally shackled to them.
You can’t have it both ways. Either you let ALL WHITE PEOPLE have the freedom to call ANY black person a “nigga” (no matter the context… including racist intent because you don’t get to choose it when its coming at you) or you don’t let ANY of them use the word without being interrogated by a slew of black people who have struggled with enduring racism all their life. No single black man / woman has the power to start cherry plucking certain white people to be allowed to say the word without being under the microscope to the exact same interrogation. Question all uses of the word by white people… BUT ALSO question all “n-word passes for white folk” BY BLACK PEOPLE.
I was suprised how little support Q-Tip, Chuck D and a small handful of black men with the guts to speak out on the real actually got. I guess we are really seeing who is real and who isn’t lately.
Russel Simmons dissapoints me but I’m not really suprised about Nas. I always suspected him to be a double agent.