Sunday, December 25, 2011

Reaction to Rihanna and racial slur

I read about Rihanna and the Dutch magazine offending her with racial slurs. First I read the article and got mad at the magazine just like she did. How can they be disrespectful like that? They should know that it would be offensive and racial jokes aren't jokes. Then it got me thinking. Rihanna along with anyone, celebrity or not, should not be degraded. In fact the magazine put two terms together that are bad all on their own. Then I turned on the radio and N***** in Paris began to play.  I love the song but still shake my head at the title. The next song was Dance by Big Sean. I don't care for him and his music but he has a line in it that when I hear it, I'm reminded why I'm not a fan.  
You the best you deserve a crown bitch
In the US, you can buy a bumper sticker, key chain, shirt, sign, etc. that says I'm the baddest bitch. I know women that would rather call themselves that bad bitch as opposed to queen or woman. It's used so much now as a replacement for woman or friend that it doesn't seem to hurt anyone. Same thing was done with the word n****. that form of the word caught on a lot earlier and I will admit, when I was in middle school/freshman year of high school, I used the word n**** all the time when talking about a dude. I said it with rap songs and it didn't bother me to use it. It wasn't until I moved to Mississippi before sophomore year that I had to stop and think about why I was saying it. It was slang, the norm, no biggie. Everybody was saying it. If I saw a dusty loud disrespectful type dude, he was a n**** to me. In Mississippi, though, I started looking at the trees that my ancestors hung from and the still standing plantation houses and couldn't form my lips to say it. I told a old friend of mine this and she said calling a man a n**** is no different than calling him a king. Really? Is that how it is now? So is Kanye really saying Got my kings in Paris and they're going gorillas? Is that the same for bitches and queens? When Jay-Z says I got that hot bitch in my home, we know who he's talking about and I'm not sure what Beyonce thought about that line. However, if they are having a daughter, instead of saying this is my little queen/princess, is he going to say this is my little bitch? I highly doubt it. This isn't a knock to rappers and entertainers but all of this is just part of language, right? The two are just any other words, right? Everybody, celebrities and non celebrities, speak slang, right? Now back to the incident at hand with the magazine. They stated that it seems to be the norm so they thought it was a) a joke and b) slang. They were interviewing a pop artist who although isn't from the states but is considered an American pop artist. They thought they were using American slang. Had we read a headline that Rihanna (or anyone else famous) saying that's my n**** Jay-Z (I keep using him as an example because I know they've worked together), would anyone had gotten offended? What if she was on stage performing with Nicki Minaj and Nicki said "That's my bitch right there. Rihanna has been my n**** we were knee high!" I will admit that doesn't sound like anything Nicki Minaj would say but would Rihanna, myself, or anyone else had been as offended? I understand why she got upset and she had every right to be. It was very offensive. I got offended just reading it. I don't go around calling men n****s and women bitches and never have I heard the term "the ultimate n****b*tch" but at the same time, should the editor have quit? They made a mistake but they also thought they were keeping up with American slang. What about the record companies here that keep pushing the slang out there with songs and videos? She had every right to be upset and offended but for everyone else, can we really blame anyone outside of the US for using the same slang as we do? Can we the users and pushers be offended?

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