[Serious] Singing the N-word

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Before going to sleep this afternoon, I was lying there in bed playing on my phone and occasionally looking up at the television that the boyfriend was watching. I have never seen the show, though I have heard of it, and honestly it just does not appeal to me to want to watch it (Dear White People) even after having seen a controversial scene that has prompted me to make this post.

In the show, there is a college party with a mixture of individuals. At one point, they are all dancing and singing along to a rap song that not only has the N-word in the title but is used constantly by the rapper in the lyrics.

The black people who heard the white boy sing the N-word along with the music informed him that he should not use that word. Eventually, the argument devolved into the white boy being called racist by the black people while the white boy was defending himself because he was merely singing along to the song.

I don't hate to say this, but I have to agree with the white boy on this. There is a difference between singing along with a song that contains the word and using the N-word maliciously against an individual of darker skin tone. In my humble opinion, the black people at the party were out of line and being emotionally illogical.

If I say the N-word in public, even in singing, and there were black people around telling me to stop using that word, why on earth would I want to keep being an inconsiderate dick about it and ignore what this word really is for them? It's ok, you can survive without having to say the N-word in front of them.

Personally, I don't even say it in private because I don't have this urge to repeat lyrics from rap songs that include that word.

Should you also self-censor when doing a public reading of, say, Huckleberry Finn or To Kill A Mockingbird?  The argument can be made that by saying (or singing) the words as the artist wrote them is a nod to artistic integrity.  I don't consider myself qualified to re-write Twain or Drake or Snoop Dog.

And where does it end?  Plenty of other words are offensive to plenty of other people.  Are you going to change 'Injun Joe' to 'Native American Joe'?  Several of Shakespeare's plays contain punning references to the word 'cunt'.  Should we bowdlerize these as well?

But what the OP boils down to is, 'It was OK for him to write it, but it's not OK for you to say it.' 

Boru