[Serious] Singing the N-word

[Rev. Rye]

There is so much to unpack here. On the one hand, it should go without saying that the N-word has an extremely loaded history, being used as a weapon to dehumanise an entire group of people. And I can certainly see the appeal of reclaiming a word (and if there's any comparison here, I make wisecracks about autism and mental health from time to time, and I've lived with the latter for the majority of my life and the former for all of it).

And yet, on the other hand, singing along to a song with the N-word in its lyrics, I think the context is clear that it's not the same as using it as a weapon. To be absolutely clear, when I'm singing along to rap songs, I try as much as possible to replace it with "Bigga" (as in Thomas) just to be on the safe side. But pouncing on white folks using it in that context, especially with this in mind:



Kenny, I love your work, and I especially love your ability to stay big without falling into the traps of falling completely out of touch, dying, or becoming a total jackass, but by bringing up a white girl to sing "m.A.A.d. city" and biting her head off for singing along to the lyrics you wrote, it just looks like you're trying to set us up to fail, just like we spent about four centuries doing the same with you.

If the context matters this little, then this needs to be the default attitude towards the N-word:



Anything less just renders the struggle meaningless.