http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2971734/Lionel-Richie-slams-Kanye-West-s-expletive-laden-BRIT-Awards-performance.html

'I don't think it's OK for a black man to use the N-word. I don't like it - and I am a black man. I don't think it should be said and become normal.'

It's too late. It's already been normalized. I hear teens of all ethnicities saying it now. Lionel comes from my parents era and grew up during Jim Crow, and probably saw and heard all of that awful stuff so I understand where he comes from. I wish it would go away myself but what can you do?

Didn't Lionel make a record with Akon? Lionel must have not listened to his songs. Also where was Lionel when Redd Foxx, Rudy Ray Moore, & Richard Pryor were around?

Interesting that it was used in social satire on TV in the 70s...

I think Lionel means that the word shouldn't be so commonplace in popular music.

That being said, I LOVE MILLIE JACKSON.

I only ever see ignorant people using the N word in public...

For too many years,people didn't make a big deal about the excessive use of this word in hip-hop music.When Snoop,Ice Cube and others were using it,no one complained.They thought it was cool.But now look what has happened.The word is now commonly accepted by hipsters and teens of all races.I told this story before,but I'll say it again....

I was once in a McDonalds and these two young Asian girls were behind me in line.These ladies looked about 15 or 16 years old.One of them mentioned a dude's name,and her friend said "Oh yeah,that's my nigga...I love him!"

As I said before...if this is really a bad,offensive word,then you should get angry when anyone uses it.

Agreed...

Its not an issue to me personally-

Its kinda like when some backwoods redneck dude says something normal to him-

that might sound a bit 'OFF' to a city/urban person..

different strokes...

SoulAlive said:

For too many years,people didn't make a big deal about the excessive use of this word in hip-hop music.When Snoop,Ice Cube and others were using it,no one complained.They thought it was cool.But now look what has happened.The word is now commonly accepted by hipsters and teens of all races.I told this story before,but I'll say it again....

I was once in a McDonalds and these two young Asian girls were behind me in line.These ladies looked about 15 or 16 years old.One of them mentioned a dude's name,and her friend said "Oh yeah,that's my nigga...I love him!"

As I said before...if this is really a bad,offensive word,then you should get angry when anyone uses it.

MotorBootyAffair said:

I think Lionel means that the word shouldn't be so commonplace in popular music.

That being said, I LOVE MILLIE JACKSON.

I think party records, blaxploitation movies, and crime novels by authors like Iceberg Slim & Donald Goines started to popularize it to the general public before rap. These were popular with a white audience in the 1970s. There's rappers who said that Iceberg Slim books were an influence and so was Al Pacino in Scarface. Movies & TV often get a wider audience than rap. There's people who watch Quentin Tarantino movies who don't listen to hip hop. Same with video games:

How many N-bombs did KRS One, Rakim, Kane or Chuck D drop in their heyday? Exactly, not so many. So it's just sad to see todays average rappers and MC's trying to act cool and respected when their peers as listed above were and are on a waaaaay higher level in the artform of Hip Hop.

Wolfie87 said:

How many N-bombs did KRS One, Rakim, Kane or Chuck D drop in their heyday? Exactly, not so many. So it's just sad to see todays average rappers and MC's trying to act cool and respected when their peers as listed above were and are on a waaaaay higher level in the artform of Hip Hop.

MickyDolenz said:

MickyDolenz said:

video games:

Man, this is when I find it most unnecessary. Like.. you can't write any interesting dialogue for a video game so you write this? I detect that's how people feel about music and some movies as well.

I cringed when Snoop used the word in his interview with Jermaine Jackson. There seems to be a bit of a generation gap with acceptance of common use of the word.

should at least be changed to n-er

Cinny said:

Man, this is when I find it most unnecessary. Like.. you can't write any interesting dialogue for a video game so you write this? I detect that's how people feel about music and some movies as well.

I cringed when Snoop used the word in his interview with Jermaine Jackson. There seems to be a bit of a generation gap with acceptance of common use of the word.

He's from Gary Indiana. I'm sure he's heard it before. Biggie says it in Mike's song This Time Around.

The Tempts used it on Run Charlie Run and Stevie says it during the fadeout of Sweet Little Girl

the word is going to run its course until the factors, the contradictions regarding race and color constructed by the founding fathers is eradicated....

the reason why the word has proliferated over the past decade or so, is because political correctness caused a malaise in dealing w/the social ills in this country, producing subculture each and every generation that continues to internalize those social conflicts in greater levels

Scorp said:

the word is going to run its course until the factors, the contradictions regarding race and color constructed by the founding fathers is eradicated....

the reason why the word has proliferated over the past decade or so, is because political correctness caused a malaise in dealing w/the social ills in this country, producing subculture each and every generation that continues to internalize those social conflicts in greater levels

MickyDolenz said:

Cinny said:

Man, this is when I find it most unnecessary. Like.. you can't write any interesting dialogue for a video game so you write this? I detect that's how people feel about music and some movies as well.

I cringed when Snoop used the word in his interview with Jermaine Jackson. There seems to be a bit of a generation gap with acceptance of common use of the word.

He's from Gary Indiana. I'm sure he's heard it before. Biggie says it in Mike's song This Time Around.

The Tempts used it on Run Charlie Run and Stevie says it during the fadeout of Sweet Little Girl

I knew there would be more examples from the very vulgar 1990s!

Cinny said:

I knew there would be more examples from the very vulgar 1990s!

The only song from the 1990s is This Time Around. Both The Temptations' & Stevie Wonder's records came out in 1972. The Last Poets 1st album came out in 1970 and they were saying it on their songs. Iceberg Slim's book Pimp came out in 1967. If you seen the concert movie Wattstax, it's said several times during the neighborhood interview scenes. Blowfly was out in the 1970s too.

Lucille Bogan was making records with profanity in the 1920s & 1930s. Also pre-Hays code, some Hollywood movies were dirty.

MickyDolenz said:

Cinny said:

I knew there would be more examples from the very vulgar 1990s!

The only song from the 1990s is This Time Around. Both The Temptations' & Stevie Wonder's records came out in 1972. The Last Poets 1st album came out in 1970 and they were saying it on their songs. Iceberg Slim's book Pimp came out in 1967. If you seen the concert movie Wattstax, it's said several times during the neighborhood interview scenes. Blowfly was out in the 1970s too.

What the fuck is your point? Plenty of people had problems with black and white people using he N word in the past. Now it appears that all ethnic groups feel it is okay to say and not just in a movies, T.V show or song.

I wonder if it would be okay for everybody to use other racial put-downs for Asians, Whites, Jews, or Gays. I bet that shit would not be explained as just normal talk. It is only okay when the N-Word is used and Lionel Richie is spot on with his comments. Kayne is an ignorant asshole and I love how white people love to hold him up as some genius. WTF if some of you encountered real Black Genius you would not know how to handle it.

In addition, if anyone calls me an N-word that are going to get cussed out up and down. It is offensive and you can do a lot to stop the use of it toward you as individual by letting people know you are not having it.

Lionel probably had a problem with all the examples used in this post too. Not every Black person co-signs the N-word. Lionel is probably singling out Kanye now because he did say the N-word about 40 times in that performance in an audience full of White people. It's an overkill.

laurarichardson said:

MickyDolenz said:

The only song from the 1990s is This Time Around. Both The Temptations' & Stevie Wonder's records came out in 1972. The Last Poets 1st album came out in 1970 and they were saying it on their songs. Iceberg Slim's book Pimp came out in 1967. If you seen the concert movie Wattstax, it's said several times during the neighborhood interview scenes. Blowfly was out in the 1970s too.

What the fuck is your point? Plenty of people had problems with black and white people using he N word in the past. Now it appears that all ethnic groups feel it is okay to say and not just in a movies, T.V show or song.

I wonder if it would be okay for everybody to use other racial put-downs for Asians, Whites, Jews, or Gays. I bet that shit would not be explained as just normal talk. It is only okay when the N-Word is used and Lionel Richie is spot on with his comments. Kayne is an ignorant asshole and I love how white people love to hold him up as some genius. WTF if some of you encountered real Black Genius you would not know how to handle it.

In addition, if anyone calls me an N-word that are going to get cussed out up and down. It is offensive and you can do a lot to stop the use of it toward you as individual by letting people know you are not having it.

Good point. That's something I don't understand. People don't get angry when they can't say other racial slurs but somehow with the N-word everyone should have the "Freedom of Speech" to say it according to some. It just goes to show how much people still don't respect Black folks enough to not even have to question why they can't say that word. I don't care how many Black rappers, comics, and actors say it. It still doesn't make the word fair game for everyone. The "Black people say it so why can't I"? elementary school excuse is silly and dismisses the Black people that don't like or say the word ever. I have a lot of feelings on this.

[Edited 3/2/15 7:26am]

laurarichardson said:

What the fuck is your point?

starbelly said:

People don't get angry when they can't say other racial slurs but somehow with the N-word everyone should have the "Freedom of Speech" to say it according to some.

There's a difference. Do those other ethnicities call each other those words as a greeting for buddy/homeboy/homegirl like some guys call each other "cat"? I've heard the N-word most my life from relatives, at school, and in the neighborhood. I lived in a rural area part of my life, and I've rarely heard people saying it there. It was in the city where I heard it a lot. It's been normalized, so it's hypocritical to say another race can't use a word that they say themselves. "Do as I say and not as I do" generally doesn't work. I recall Jewish groups complained about the K-word on Michael Jackson's They Don't Care About Us, and the word was bleeped out in later printings of HIStory. I didn't see anybody picketing about This Time Around, which is on the same album.

MickyDolenz said:

starbelly said:

People don't get angry when they can't say other racial slurs but somehow with the N-word everyone should have the "Freedom of Speech" to say it according to some.

There's a difference. Do those other ethnicities call each other those words as a greeting for buddy/homeboy/homegirl like some guys call each other "cat"? I've heard the N-word most my life from relatives, at school, and in the neighborhood. I lived in a rural area part of my life, and I've rarely heard people saying it there. It was in the city where I heard it a lot. It's been normalized, so it's hypocritical to say another race can't use a word that they say themselves. "Do as I say and not as I do" generally doesn't work. I recall Jewish groups complained about the K-word on Michael Jackson's They Don't Care About Us, and the word was bleeped out in later printings of HIStory. I didn't see anybody picketing about This Time Around, which is on the same album.

There's no difference. If other ethnicities went around calling themselves racial slurs directed at them I would not feel entitled to get in on it like people do with the N-word. How is it hypocrital if Lionel or me or whatever other Black person that doesn't say it get angry or annoyed when others who aren't Black do? Or even when other Black people do? And just because SOME Black people say it doesn't make it fair game for everyone like I said. That's some childish thinking. Also plently of Black leaders over the years have rallied against the use of the word, there was even a "funeral" for it to literally put it to death. But it didn't catch on. It's annoying when people act like NO Black people care about it and every Black person in the world has it in their vocabulary. I know plently that don't like it.

I grew up hearing the word too but I still manage not to say it because I have a mind of my own and I don't need to do what other people do just because they do it. If I can manage to never say it other people can do it too, but people don't want to because they don't care about respecting Black people so they rather make silly arguments and excues and whine over why they can't.

[Edited 3/2/15 10:26am]

starbelly said:

There's no difference. If other ethnicities went around calling themselves racial slurs directed at them I would not feel entitled to get in on it like people do with the N-word. How is it hypocrital if Lionel or me or whatever other Black person that doesn't say it get angry or annoyed when others who aren't Black do? Or even when other Black people do? And just because SOME Black people say it doesn't make it fair game for everyone like I said. That's some childish thinking.

I grew up hearing the word too but I still manage not to say it because I have a mind of my own and I don't need to do what other people do just because they do it. If I can manage to never say it other people can do it too, but people don't want to because they don't care about respecting Black people so they rather make silly arguments and excues and whine over why they can't.

Don't people generally imitate entertainment? Like people buying Beatle wigs or playing 'cowboys & Indians' when westerns were popular or Trekkie conventions. If the N-word is all over entertainment (unlike the other ethnic terms), and the entertainment is really popular like Grand Theft Auto, what do you expect? A lot of the younger audience for these might not be aware of the background of the n-word, like people might not be aware that "gay" meant happy, "faggot" was a bundle of sticks, and that the swastika is hundreds of years old, long before Nazis. It meant something else, but now if someone sees it, it's associated with Nazis. Meanings change. It's too late to go back now, like Pandora's box.

[Edited 3/2/15 10:35am]

Richard Pryor put the word front and center at the height of his career. Did Lionel come out against Richard?

But SoulAlive has a point: the icons of hip-hop from the late 80s and 90s not only brought it into the public consciousness, they made it marketable. Not all uses of the word are created equal, but when you literally sell the word to the marketplace, this is what happens.

MickyDolenz said:

starbelly said:

There's no difference. If other ethnicities went around calling themselves racial slurs directed at them I would not feel entitled to get in on it like people do with the N-word. How is it hypocrital if Lionel or me or whatever other Black person that doesn't say it get angry or annoyed when others who aren't Black do? Or even when other Black people do? And just because SOME Black people say it doesn't make it fair game for everyone like I said. That's some childish thinking.

I grew up hearing the word too but I still manage not to say it because I have a mind of my own and I don't need to do what other people do just because they do it. If I can manage to never say it other people can do it too, but people don't want to because they don't care about respecting Black people so they rather make silly arguments and excues and whine over why they can't.

Don't people generally imitate entertainment? Like people buying Beatle wigs or playing 'cowboys & Indians' when westerns were popular or Trekkie conventions. If the N-word is all over entertainment (unlike the other ethnic terms), and the entertainment is really popular like Grand Theft Auto, what do you expect? A lot of the younger audience for these might not be aware of the background of the n-word, like people might not be aware that "gay" meant happy, "faggot" was a bundle of sticks, and that the swastika is hundreds of years old, long before Nazis. It meant something else, but now if someone sees it, it's associated with Nazis. Meanings change. It's too late to go back now, like Pandora's box.

[Edited 3/2/15 10:35am]

Yes I already knowledged that it's been normalized but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it and not have an opinion on non-Black people using it. I'm not fond of anyone saying it and never will be, but I ESPECIALLY don't like it when non-Black people say it. I shouldn't have to go out and hear a racial slurs for Black people coming out of some White kid's mouth. I don't care how much entertainment he's seen and heard that still doesn't make it okay.

You have to wonder why it's all over entertainment too. There are Black rappers and artists that never utter the word in their music but you won't see them being as popular as those that do. I think you aren't giving young people enough credit either. Young people have the internet, they can google. Young people learn about the word's origin in school. I think they know where it comes from, because if you call them out they will tell you that they're using the other version. They know.

Also I don't think the meaning has changed as evident by that fact that there's Black folks that get angry hearing it come out of someone's mouth that isn't Black. Even if it's the supposedly "friendly" version. It's why I don't get the whole reclaimation thing entirely. I get trying to make the word positive. That's what they were trying to do in Hip-hop. Make something with a negative and ugly history into something positive but it didn't work. Nowadays when I hear Black people refer to each other as the N-word it's usually in a negative way, so even trying to reclaim the word looks like it failed. It's a hate filled word that will never have a positive meaning in my opinion.

[Edited 3/2/15 12:46pm]