Well as long as it’s a misunderstanding. What’s a guy to do when he’s singing along and out pops one of the most racist words on the planet, you know, out of nowhere… because that’s what happens when you don’t use a word regularly, it just pops out.
Let’s get philosophical for a moment. If you say a word all the time but no one hears it, or no one ever understands it, is it still a offensive word? Can a word be offensive if it never actually offends anyone?
Think of it more like… alcohol. You know when someone gets so plastered they just turn anti-semantic and racist… no, no that’s not a thing. Alcohol does not make you racist or anti-semantic, it just removes your inhibitions and filters. So if someone goes on a racist tirade because they were drunk, that racism was always there.
If someone starts spouting specific words when their guard is down, that usually means that word is in their vocabulary, their regularly vocabulary.
So what does it mean when someone listens to rap, someone who might be a huge rap fan even but somehow just throws in a loaded word that’s not even in the song he’s singing… maybe he needed a few more clicks and that may or may not work out for him.
I get that. Do a lot of rap songs have that word? Is it possible that he got confused? If there are a lot of songs with that word, and if he listens to a lot of songs, if he lets the word slip, is it really an offensive word if he never meant it to be offensive?
And if (big if) he never meant it to be offensive, does the color of his skin make the word become offensive?
I’ve never seen this guy, pretty much everything I know about Mr. Ninja I learned in the last two posts, but this seems like a very reasonable “benefit of a doubt” stance.
If he has a history that says maybe he doesn’t deserve the benefit of a doubt, that’s different of course. But the “n-word” is about as complicated as it gets, I can’t think of a similar word. To some people, even dryly discussing the word and its meaning will be cause for offense or discomfort if anyone actually says nigger instead of “n-word”. To some people, how you get to use it depends on whether you’re black or white. It certainly permeates rap music, and even within that context its meaning and intent can vary.
I wouldn’t really want to jump to any conclusions either way based on what I know from this story.
I am under the impression that rap has a lot if it, yes, at least hard rap. It’s rap I don’t listen to so I am not an expert. The color of his skin does matter. Beyond that, we might have to head to The View where Whoopie explains why no one likes talking about this stuff…
My main issue was more that his apology’ it sucks. A misunderstanding? A misunderstanding of what? Why couldn’t he jus say, I listen to a lot of rap. That word is in a lot of the rap I listen too and I either ad-libbed or forgot the lyric.
Now this streamer doesn’t seem like he has a trail of racism and jabs at minority groups like that blonde hair pro kid does that keeps getting himself in trouble. Based on this, no I don’t think he meant anything by it but he trips over his tongue in that apology.
So what he says can be offensive or not (whether he meant it or not) just because of the color of his skin. Isn’t that the very definition of racism? Discrimination or prejudice against someone because of the color of their skin?
I don’t know anything about this dude and I’m not defending him, but if I sang along to rap all day I would probably be one of the people where the n-word would slip out because words on my mind tend to come out of my mouth when I make mistakes whether or not I intended to say them.
However, I’ve also adopted saying “n-word” instead of the actual n word in my headspace, which I realized recently when I was singing to myself the chorus to the Victory remix by Nine Inch Nails (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64qvmd3v-2Q&feature=youtu.be&t=73) and was saying “Where my n-words is at!?” This is probably the only song I listen to with that word since I don’t listen to rap much at all (hence the remix linked about rather than the original song).
So maybe I wouldn’t let that word slip out… hmmmm.
Anyways, to me it would all be down to the apology whether or not I believe him, but since I don’t follow this twitch stuff I haven’t bothered reading it.
This is my take, brought to you by There’s No Way You Actually Care About This TM.
Aside/Edit: Also, I really accidentally said the n-word once. Maybe 10 years ago, I had, at the time, 2 dogs. Neo and Tigger. And one of them ran away from me right through our front door. And I ran chasing, and the way a parent does when they confuse their kids’ names, I stuttered out the wrong name first. So, remove the first letter from Neo and substitute it for the first letter of Tigger and…
I was standing about 10 feet away at the time from my black neighbor’s window. True story. :(
There seems to be a gulf of difference between Mr. ninja here and PewDiePie’s transgressions. Mr. Pie used the slur in malice; he was frustrated with someone so he called him a name he felt was derogatory. This is really scary.
Ninja, on the other hand, was singling along to a style of song that uses this slur very, very often. If I sing along to Power by Kanye West am I doing a bad thing? Do I have to only sing with the radio edit?
Also, ninja’s apology seems pretty alright. He’s totally aware of what happened and doesn’t want anyone to feel bad.
I feel like, as a society, we’re getting so lost in the literal semantics we’ve lost sight of context sometimes. I don’t think what Ninja did actually reflects poorly on his character, outside of maybe thinking he listens to a style of music some people might find offensive.
No. I am not going to have this entire conversation on why certain groups are allowed to use words and others aren’t. If you don’t understand this argument by now, Google it. token black person on this forum can’t have these kinds of these discussions every day here.
In this case, I suspect his apology did more harm than good. It’s a crappy apology because it’s not really a misunderstanding. He sang something, it was recorded, and really, how hard it is to say I just added my own lyric or I forgot it. In context, it probably just surprised a few people.
There are words that don’t belong to everyone.
I mean I come down in a very similar place. I know jack all about Ninja, but I do know that term is frequent in certain styles of rap. Now that it was incorrect? Eh, how many times have you sung along to a song and gotten the lyrics wrong. If this guy does not have a history of racial epitaphs and using derogatory terms, I’d be inclined to chalk it up as a mistake.
Now if he does it again in a week, or has a history of these types of things? Different story.
As to @rhamorim’s question about does his skin color play a role on whether the word is a problem or not? That is a very tough question to answer, because it ties into a ton of cultural baggage. One of those deals where the term was, indeed, used as part of a system of racial oppression, was certainly used, frequently, as a racist insult. It also has been ‘reclaimed’ by certain parts of black community to rob it of its power, so to speak. But there is clearly an in group, and an out group, to the term. People within the in group can use that term among themselves, and know no ill intent or insult is meant, that it is acceptable. But if you are not (and, yes, this does break mostly on racial lines, but not always, and not always how you might expect), then the presumption of familial and innocent intent is not granted.
Having said that I’ve worked in the city with mixed communities. And there were plenty of white and hispanic people I saw use the term, but only with people they were familiar with. Once they had been accepted into the group, as it were. Had I, nerdy suburban white kid, tried to do so it would not have been met with the same friendly reception. Likewise I have known plenty of people for whom their skin color would indicate the term would be a non issue. But their suburban upbringing and cultural associations (by which I mean we were nerdy kids doing nerdy things) would cause them potential issues if they were to walk up to someone from the south side and use the term.
Basically it’s complicated. And whether you agree with the positions or not, it is complicated because of some very precise cultural and historical reasons that may not always seem apparent.
I fully agree. I’m well aware of the many aspects behind the whole thing. But I think it’s important to acquiesce that prohibiting someone from doing something solely because of the color of their skin is racism. You can argue that kind of racism is not relevant. You can even argue that kind of racism is necessary. But it still is racism, just like a white lie is still a lie.
Well said.
Well, I’ll admit I don’t know it the way you do. I haven’t experienced American racism in the same way, even if I have actually experienced some form of it. But I know about it, and my “not-inside-of-it” position brings with it a whole different perspective that might well be worth listening to.
I am disappoint that someone didn’t crack wise at the opening provided by Nesrie’s typo.
…I got nuttin’.
Yikes. I sure hope no-one ever catches me rapping along with Kanye or Kid Cudi in the car, cause I got n-words flying out all over the place.
A common definition of racism often used in these discussions includes an element of power/privilege. Or, more to the point, a historically disadvantaged group may very well hold prejudices or make unfair generalizations, but they are, in essence, incapable of expressing racism specifically against the groups that hold societal power over them.
I understand that definition may not be to everyone’s preference, but within that context, no, telling white folks in America not to use a term that often causes significant harm and pain to black folks isn’t really racism, though it probably is necessary.