Rapper Kendrick Lamar Invites Fan on Stage to Rap Lyrics But She Ends Up Saying the "N" Word

Last Sunday during an Alabama concert, rapper Kendrick Lamar invited a white fan on stage to help rap the lyrics to his song "m.A.A.d city." While rapping the lyrics, there came a point in the song where the "N" word (nigga) was used and the fan did not pause or bleep out that part of the song she instead kept on singing. After she proceeded to rap the word more than once as used in the song, Lamar stopped the music and said, "wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." She replied, "Am I not cool enough for you? What's up, bro?" He said, "You gotta bleep one single word though." She then began to apologize saying "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I do it? I'm so sorry. Oh my God." Lamar asked the crowd if the fan should stay on stage and continue performing with him in which they loudly replied "NO!" but he decided to continue performing the song with her anyway

Social media went into an uproar and two completely different opinions formed. One side argued that the fan should have known better to repeat the word which was and continues to be used by white people as a derogatory slur against black people. The other side argued that the word shouldn't be used by anyone (white or black) in the first place and this situation may not have occurred. 

The debate about whether or not the "N" word should be used by black people has been going on for years. If you talk to people from the civil rights era (our parents and grandparents) they advise us to never use that word because they lived in a time where it was used very heavily to degrade black people. But if you talk to people of the millennial generation or people who grew up heavily involved in hip-hop culture, they will say they took the degradation out of the word and began using it as slang or a term of endearment. 

Both sides of the spectrum have a valid point to their statement.

It is true that the fan never should've used the word and should've been more sensitive to where she was BUT why was she so comfortable saying it in the first place? I do not believe it's because she is racist. What I do believe is because we as black people have turned the word into common language by putting it in a large percentage of rap songs, other cultures now feel it is ok for them to repeat it because we are seemingly no longer offended by it. Even though that conclusion does not give them the right to use the word, it makes sense as to why people would feel comfortable using it.

However, no matter how much we use the word other races and ethnicities should not feel any more comfortable using the "N" word as they would feel using other derogatory slurs. There should be an individual empathy and senstivity to the history of that word and how it continues to disregard and disrespect black people to this day.

So how should we as a community move forward with the use of the "N" word? Maybe if we stop using it, other people will see our stand and stop using it as well?

What do you think? Comment below!