[Serious] Singing the N-word

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

No, but I also won't die if I don't have cream on my oatmeal.  It isn't about what's fatal and what isn't, it's about claiming ownership of a word.

To be clear, I don't approve of the n-word, due to its history and connotations (as has been mentioned before).  I think it's a vile, despicable word.  I can completely understand why people shouldn't use it.  I don't understand why people shouldn't say it when they're quoting someone else.  Drake uses the word in a song and no one bats an eye.  But if I say that word while singing along to the song, I'm a racist. It isn't as if I'm using that word about someone or directed that word to someone.

Boru

Heh.  I just flashed on last year's 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' debate.

I get that, but if the black community in general [in America at least] have made it very clear that you shouldn't say that word at all, not even in songs, knowing the history behind that word and knowing that it isn't just a slur but a traumatic reminder to black people of the slavery of their past along with the institutionalized racism and the the white privilege that continues to hold to this day, why would someone who understands this still use the word in any context (even if not directed at someone)?

Hell, some black people don't even like it when other black people use it.

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/20...d-in-music

Article above authored by a black woman.

I find myself in agreement with Ms. Priester.  I don't like hearing the word, regardless of who says it.  But it seems sort of disingenuous when artists who perpetuate the word don't want non-black people to sing along. 

I'm the last person to tell black people what words they should or should not include in their songs, but if it wasn't being perpetuated in this manner, we wouldn't even need this discussion.

Richard Pryor once told a very salient story about why he stopped using the n-word in his act.  On his first visit to Africa, he had this internal conversation with himself:

'What do you see?'

'People.'

'Do you see any n*****s?'

'No.'

'Why not?'

'Because there aren't any.  There's just people.'

Boru