I have talked about this with my friends multiple times (who all have varying views on this subject) and it never changes.
As a black person, I’ve always said to other black folks and about black artists (honestly this goes for anyone writing a song), “If you don’t want someone outside your ethnicity to say certain words that are generally offensive, then maybe you shouldn’t be saying them in your songs. Otherwise, don’t complain when rando person from another country (who often don’t speak English as a first…or second language, and who don’t know about US ethnic drama, because they are too busy living their own lives with their own drama in their own place(s) of residence) are just repeating what the song says.”
Things like this come up from time to time, and every time it does, people are ready to just cancel the person to hell because they didn’t know about what’s going on in another country, and why they shouldn’t be saying it. Hell half the time, we don’t know what’s going on in our own country, it’s pretty obtuse to assume that just because you know about it in your small part of the world, doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is supposed to know about it. Also, if you’re gonna be that offended about it, then why are you using the word yourself? And don’t give me that garbage of, “It’s different when “we” say it.” NO, it’s NOT. It’s another one of those “Don’t say what may offend you” moments.
For example, I don’t say the N word…at all (hard ‘r’ or no), because coming from the Deep South, I know what it’s used for. My grandfather was being called that word, as he was being chased by prejudiced idiots through a forest. They chased him, because they wanted to lynch him simply because he was “Black”(actually he was French/English/Native American, but he had more Melanin than apparently he should have) and was the Principal of a school in Mississippi at the time. So, I don’t use the word, but I’m from the Southern US.
If I was..say..from Indonesia, didn’t speak English at all, but loved an American artist that uses the N-word in their songs, I would just repeat the lyrics of the song because I love it. As said person, I wouldn’t know about the baggage that comes with that word, because frankly I’m too busy living my own life and having to deal all the history, culture and current drama that’s going on in my own country to know the same details of another country. That type of US History isn’t taught in school outside the US. Hell, it’s not even really taught in schools inside the US in any depth, so how does anyone expect someone from outside the country to know? If I was that person from another country and was randomly recorded performing the song’s lyrics and that video was put on YouTube or TikTok or some social media site, and the video went viral, I, as that random person from another country would be completely lambasted. Why–because I’m a “racist” who repeated the words of a song that I loved and I should know better. I should be canceled for it. Are you kidding me? I put parenthesis around racist, because frankly, honestly, and truly, aren’t we all human? There are different ethnicities and cultures, but at the end of the day, when it all boils down to it, are we not all of the same HUMAN race?
It’s why I always say, “If you don’t want someone outside your ethnicity to say certain words that are generally offensive, then maybe you shouldn’t be saying them in your songs or in daily life. Otherwise, don’t complain when rando person from another country are just repeating what the song says.”
I’m sure I could get canceled for this opinion, but honestly, I don’t care. It’s how I feel about it and it is what it is.
