Rapper Nas has just released the new video for his “controversial” song on his “controversial” album, “Be a Nigger Too.”
It’s eight-and-a-half minutes long, and includes a variety of what some might consider racial slurs. Not just “nigger.” He uses “kike” and “spic,” too. But he uses all of them in what I have to say is a loving manner.
Look, I’m not black. I’m Jewish, but I don’t look it. I’ve never really been on the receiving end of racial injustice. I’ll state that upfront as a disclaimer. But I don’t understand what the big deal is here. Nas is trying to remove the anger and hatred from these words. Because it’s no secret that language can shape a culture as much as a culture shapes a language. I don’t know if it really matters in the long run — if people want to hate other people because of their race (and their own insecurities and self-hatred), they’re going to find a way to do it — but you can’t blame a guy for trying.
I feel like even labeling this album as “controversial” is racism in and of itself. Why is it controversial? Because it involves a black man supporting basic human rights and dignity while using the word “nigger”? Like, what, white men hundreds of years ago get to decide that the word “nigger” is offensive and no one can ever change that evereverever? We’re just supposed to have this word that carries such a strong undercurrent of hatred and violence lingering in our dialect until the fucking universe implodes? Why can’t someone try to change this? Why is it so wrong to try? I understand that its critics want to respect the struggle that black people have endured in America, especially in regards to that word, and I appreciate that, but what I hear Nas trying to say with this song is “Move the fuck on, people. It’s a divisive word. Let’s give it less power.” And I totally appreciate that, too, and it’s upsetting that anyone would want to revoke his right to send that message in whatever way he chooses.
I’m sure you all have your own opinions on this matter. Please weigh in.
I completely agree with you Beet. No doubt you’ll have all the morons posting soon who have only read
…to the second paragraph and are going to slag you off for it. But I think your points at the end are very valid and that anyone with half a brain (to use the words of Michael Lohan ;p) could see where you are coming from.
Beautifully put, Beet. You’ve been saying what I’ve been trying to say for years now. Let’s let the group of people who the “N” word is trying to hurt decide whether or not it’s appropriate, not the collective community. There is something powerful in confronting taboos and forcing others to come to terms with our painful history. I’m finally glad that I’m not the only non-black person who feels this way.
ok i just watched an 8:39 minute video, 4 minutes of which was credits? (2 at the front and two at the end) I really hope this is like the rough draft and he is going to revise it and make it better. At this point it seems pretty rough. The production is pretty thin, and the video is – not quite there.
And what exactly is the message – that we’re still facing racism in America? Or the fact that the popularization of urban black culture (rap music) has occurred at the expense of average black Americans? Or that despite our racial and economic differences, Americans have more in common than we think? Maybe he should just pick one message per song. If he wants to cover a bunch of different, albeit related messages, why not put out multiple songs in an album?
Anyways, I’m not knocking the video, I’d just like to see the next version.
This site sucks
Beet, with all due respect, and as a fellow jew…I can’t BELIEVE you actually wrote: “I’m a jew, but I don’t LOOK it.”
For god’s sake. You of all people should know that you can’t LOOK like a religion.
Good point and excellent piece Beet. I think this says it all.
a question TSS-you rarely have anything positive to say about the site or our beloved Beet-why do you continue to visit if you find it so distasteful?
I completely agree with allowing the connotation of the word in question be redefined; however, as a white woman I know that no matter what progress is made it will never be ok for me to use it. I can respect that.
Because I’m a MORON
Linguistic prohibition of any sort only strengthens bigotry. Therefore, let him do it.
F&ck the PC dbags and their incessant bleating.
Isn’t this coming from the same girl who was blamig and defacing Somolians for spamming on her site? I guess Somolians aren’t as “cool” and “hip” as black people.
There’s nothing funnier than an upper-class Jewish white girl trying to “fit in”. The ONLY thing this girl (Beet) can learn from this video is that Nas knows who he is and doesn’t try to pretend to be something that he’s not just to please others.
Here’s the IRONY:
To say that it is ok to change the meaning of this word so that it does not “carry the undertow of hatred and violence” after you threaten to find and kill Somolians for spammingon your site is like the pot calling the kettle a “nigger”.
This is the first gossip site that I have come across where the commentors are more intelligent, patient, and understanding than the creator of the site.
@jessiee: CAN’T LOOK IT??
Two words: Amy Winehouse
plan and simple, I dont agree with the use of the word. it made my skin crawl to read it here on your site. And I think it has a place in todays black culture. If anything, it serves as a constant reminder of the struggle of thousands up and until this day and in the future. Like any struggling demographic thourghout history, it is important to remember where you came from. and this word is a constant reminder for the better i feel. thats the irony behind the word. the power it gets isnt from a black rapper but from those not of the race using it negativly. so in the end this video is useless in terms of creating change. that may be the “big deal”.
all the points you make Beet are valid in word form. very lofty. but positive and well thought out as a whole…but trying to take away the derogitory conotation of a word stems not from the word itself, but from the people using it in a negative way. if everyone went around saying the N-word, it would not solve any problem.
i totally agree 100%, im hispanic and i dont “look it” either, i know what u mean. and to the poster below who gripes about Beet’s ‘not [looking]’ it, i recently was lectured for 20 minutes about how Judaism isnt really a religion, but rather a culture embedded into a religion.
above**
as a very white girl i don’t know what it means to be racially insulted, so it is hard for me to weigh in on the video. personally, my hackles automatically go up when i hear those terms. but my best friend is african american and she not only uses the N word but she also collects “black americana”, things like sambo cookie jars, black lawn jockeys, “funny” slave cariactures (huge lips, eating watermelon) etc. it is quite the collection and could go into the smithsonian! she says that forgetting the past is a mistake, and that she embraces those who came before her and had to endure so much violence so that she could vote and go to college. so i suppose words & images of intolerance can be neutralized and victims of racial hatred can be honored in this way. i will say that as a woman, i strongly dislike the word cunt. just my personal feeling, but i can see why some women feel that embracing it is to take the sting out of it. maybe there is no right or wrong way to feel.
I agree with Swillz … The “power” of this word is in the negative usage of it, and I appreciate “bec’s” (5:44a) comment. I am a woman of color and I do realize that there is hatred and prejudice against women, and people of color, etc, etc, and I dare not cross lines of decency and use negative words that were and ARE used against others, and I appreciate it when those are not used against me… Everyone has the right to say what they want.. I can’t stop them, but words, such as the N-word, and any idiotic slurs, will always have stigma and negative connotations and they’re not to be taken lightly. I don’t want to hear 10 yr old white boys on the subways calling each other the N-word, when my relatives, and friends, and I have had that word hurled at us in all seriousness. Not cool. I don’t even use the word, and I find it really disgusting that so many people view mainstream pop/rap and all of the misogynistic, sometimes homophobic, self-deprecating as indicative of an entire group of people. There are social injustices and oppressions that are tied into the very core of these words, and yes, saying them over and over is not going to take that stigma away.
exactly.
I’m 26 y.o. and I didn’t even know what a “Kike” or “spic” was referring to. I had to go ask my husband if he knew. He only knew the first one.
Just goes to show if you grow up in a household that doesn’t use disrespectful language, or if you don’t listen to negative garbage on tv or in music, terms such as these could possibly be eliminated. None of my friends (who represent multiple ethnicities) use words like this in any conversation we have ever had. I am well educated and grew up in a large city. I’m actually happy I didn’t even know those words.
I lived in Central America for a long time and I was the only white girl (with blonde hair and blue eyes) in my neighborhood and I was constantly verbally harassed and frequently overcharged for things. I was told this was because I was white, therefore they assumed I was a rich American. Little did they know I barely made 450 US dollars a month and had a dirt floor. I guess this is as close as I will ever get to knowing racial discrimination.
This would only work if people always used slurs in a positive manner; to try and change them into normal words, with no pain attached. But it wont happen beet, because as often as black kids call each other nigga on the street, and the gay boy tease each other with “fag”, they cannot completely reclaim these words until others stop using them as slurs.
When a boy calls a teammate a fag for missing a catch, or a black woman calls her cheating boyfriend a broke ass nigga, these words turn back into slurs, and all the hatred remains associated with them.
How would you feel if for years your husband called you a stupid cunt and would smack you around? You get strong enough to leave him. Then some hardcore lesbian college students run around shouting out cunt, saying we should reclaim the word. You might agree with them intellectually, but it still stings every time you hear the word.
I don’t use the word and I don’t allow my students to use it in school, whether they be black, white, or hispanic. No words that are considered (or have been considered) racial slurs are permitted. I am all for removing negative connotations from words, but if one of my students came into class, said the N-word while claiming to do so to lessen the impact of the word, I would still reprimand him. I just don’t want to hear it, nor do others.
This video is not necessarily trying to take away the negative association, I think Nas is just trying to say that its just a word, and that the use of it creates an exaggerated response.
Props to Nas for this song.
This is sad for me. Why should people who were called “Niggers” have to listen to this. I don’t thik slaves have appreciated it; I don;t think those who fought for civil rights would appreciate it. I don;t think it would be taken as a ggos song if a jew wrote about kikes or a hispanic wrote about spics. When we STOP using the word, it will render it useless- this does not.
Yeah, I just wanted to say that Judiasm is a religion, not a race. I don’t really care about Nas using the n-word. Whatevs.
Also, I would love ever so much to buy you a drank, my beety site-writer. I think you are amazing. I wish I could be your BFF and we could trade Lisa Frank stickers. You are the wind beneath my wings.
I’m of Italian descent, and got a scholarship interview in high school where the head of committee seriously said “You’re going to a school where there aren’t a lot of Italians. What if someone says you must be a ‘guinea dago wop from the Mafia?'” It took all my effort not to laugh in the committee head’s face at the question, but that was the straight answer I came up with: I’d laugh, because those words are meaningless, and when you are able to laugh at something, it loses its power. I still think that’s true for all slurs- some are just more hurtful than others and it will take longer to go away. But any linguist will tell you that words will outlive their meaning, so we may as well learn to cope with it in our language in some way that makes it less damaging now.
I couldn’t agree more with swillz and IHeartRatters. Just saying the word over and over in a video is not going to accomplish anything positive. It’s only going to further numb society through a lazy form of entertainment as education. I don’t care if Naz claims to not be bothered by the “N” word, believe me, if someone called his son the N word at school, he’d be up in the principal’s face the first chance he got. I don’t believe for a second that he doesn’t care. He just wants to be controversial and sensational. But really, I don’t know what his intent is in making this video, and nether do you Beet. Please don’t assume to know someone’s intent or objective. And since you’re not a Black person and haven’t been called the N word before, you should think twice before saying anything like, “I understand that its critics want to respect the struggle that black people have endured in America, especially in regards to that word, and I appreciate that, but what I hear Nas trying to say with this song is “Move the fuck on, people.” I really don’t think you do understand the struggle black people have endured, or you would never have made that comment. And no, it doesn’t require you to be a black person yourself to understand a people’s struggle. It’s a human struggle. I’m sure you can empathize.
i thought the jewish people were a race. with religion thrown in. um, if not then what was up with hitler and all that. duh.
I’m white, and where I grew up that was bad enough to get you jumped after classes, slurs coming at you all the time or all out shunned. So people dont talk as if racism is something that only affects black people and at least here slavery is over, look up and see that there is still slavery of white people in the world, and think about how many jews are still being outright slaughtered before you go and insult EB and accuse anyone of not understanding.
There are, to reiterate for those of you who didn’t pay attention in school, three races, basically: Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid — or in layman’s terms, Whites, Blacks, and Asians. Judaism is a religion. Yes, it also has strong cultural undertones, no question, but it is a religion, first and foremost. There are black jews (ethiopians), and I’m pretty sure none of them LOOK JEWISH, according to Chris’s qualifications, and as far as Joan’s comments, you have some reading to do, girl. Hitler was trying to purify the world into an “Aryan Race” — which of course wasn’t a race at all…it was a bunch of blond, blue-eyed, protestants, of which he didn’t even meet two of those three qualifications. The Holocaust took six million jewish lives — but also took many catholic lives, along with russians, poles, gypsies, and anyone else Hitler decided didn’t fit his own “perfect model.” The man was insane, I think that’s been clearly defined.
And with that, I’ll let this go. I never meant for it to go so far, but I’ll tell you, there’s a lot of ignorance out there, people.
You’re absolutely right Beet, i loved the part where you said “Why is it controversial? Because it involves a black man supporting basic human rights and dignity while using the word “niggerâ€? ” I LOVED that, i loved the way you put it.