Why Are White People Pointing Out Things Black People Should Know Already?
We all have attended cookouts and family dinners where the food was terrible. The turkey was too dry, or the meatloaf was not seasoned enough, or the pot roast was too salty. It is okay for you to say, “Hey Mom. This wasn’t good” or “Yo, Pops. You can’t cook, man”. But another person shouldn’t even dare to fix their lips to criticize your parent’s cooking. That is what it is like when other races point out issues in the Black community.
There are issues us Blacks are (or should be) fully aware of, but perhaps we cannot see the forest for the trees. Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out the obvious to us. Example number one is Piers Morgan.
The British writer, broadcaster, and host of Good Morning Britain recently called out rappers for their incessant use of the n-word. He states that many whites are confused as to why they cannot use the term, “If Black people are using it then some people think ‘Why can’t I?’. Wouldn’t it be better if rap stars did stop peppering all their songs with the n-word?” Every word in the American vocabulary should not be suitable for every American. Black people using the n-word does not grant white people a license to use it. On the flip side, the derogatory term “redneck” should not be used by Blacks.
But…
Piers Morgan brings up a good point. In a country where race seems to be at the epicenter of every issue, the decreased use of racial slurs would go a long way to repairing the ethnic and color divide. Banning the n-word would not be helpful. As the Lunacy Leftists and Cancel Culture zealots have shown us if you give them an inch they will take three miles. If the n-word were banned, that would open the doors for a laundry list of other “offensive” words to be banned. However, a gradual decline in the use of the n-word in music would not empower other ethnicities to repeat the word as often. If a child sees their parents smoking cigarettes growing up, there is a greater chance that they will smoke cigarettes as they get older. Hearing the n-word in music works in a similar fashion. The more you hear it, the more desensitized you become to it, and the higher the chance of you using it.
In addition, it would create fewer situations of conflict in mixed company. Imagine attending a racially diverse party and YG’s song “My Nigga” starts playing? This situation is portrayed in the Netflix dramedy series Dear White People. Reggie, a Black social justice warrior, attends a predominantly white fraternity party. One of the Caucasian partygoers, Addison, raps along with a song that is playing and repeats the n-word, much to the disdain of Reggie. When broached about it, Addison insists that he does not use the word, he was only singing along.
Phasing out the n-word in Hip-Hop would lead to fewer situations like this, especially potentially violent altercations. Refraining from using the n-word in Hip-Hop would also have a trickle-down effect on our children. They would be listening to it less at home during their important developmental years, thus decreasing the likelihood of it becoming a regular part of their slang later in life. It would also lead to fewer race-related conflicts in schools. There have been countless incidents in schools throughout the country where the use of the epithet invoked unrest and racial divide at school. If Blacks are serious about racial equality, taking a sober look at the long-standing trope of n-word usage in our music might be worth considering.
Speaking of children, that leads to the second example of a White person having to point out something to us that we should already know. This person is Joe Biden.
Rappers Cardi B and Offset recently attended the album release party of R&B songstress, Teyana Taylor. Both were seen at the Los Angeles nightclub hosting the event, begging for attention in their bright yellow outfits, with their two-year-old daughter Kulture. Children are sponges of their environments. They will soak up every action and every word being spoken in any place they are in. Exposing a two-year-old to a nightclub environment with loud, profane music, sexual dancing, and alcohol is dumb to the umpteenth degree. It is a reason why so many Black children fall victim to lust and alcohol because they were steadily exposed to it in their youth.
Democratic Presidential-hopeful Joe Biden once said, “Play the radio. Make sure the television—excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night. The phone—make sure the kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school...a very poor background will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there.”
Many people ragged on Biden for showing his age by mentioning a record player, but he is absolutely correct. Children of parents who read to them daily or listen to talk radio hear over one million more words than their peers. This puts them ahead when they are eventually placed in the schooling system. Unfortunately, this is part of what separates Black and White children. Many Black children grow up listening to songs about violence and sex, listening to the repeated use of the n-word, listening to artists promote poor financial habits, and replicate all of it when they get older. Cardi B and Offset’s daughter in a nightclub can presumably be one of many other poor parental choices by the Hip-Hop musicians.
Poor parenting continues the cycle of poverty in Black communities. It is unfortunate that White people are the ones who are pointing this out and not us.
