I’d like to preface my writing with this: I’m going to be discussing one of today’s most politically and racially charged topics: the N-Word. I do this out of true interest and inquiry, and in the spirit of sorting out the issue a little better, if for no one else, then for myself. I have no illusions that my demographics may inform other’s interpretation of this paper; as a white male, I understand that some might question my motivations for writing about this topic– some believe these attributes make me suspect in and of themselves. (Shackelford) I can’t change this, but I can say the following and hope it resonates clearly. I believe the N-Word has little to no positive use in modern times. I understand the “reclamation” argument, but I believe the word should be used only in historical pieces (literary or otherwise) and their recitals – by any who recite them – for the sole purpose of remembrance, that we might not forget the hate and horror of racism or dilute it with colloquialisms built of that which was used to cut. That being said, I do not believe this is a realistic wish, considering how deeply embedded the N-Word has become in both African-American and American culture – the two of which, I believe, are blending quickly and well. Given this reality, I use this paper to explore the cultural ideas that govern its use in the modern day.
On May 20th, 2018, Kendrick Lamar performed in Gulf Shores, Alabama as one of the headlining acts for Hangout Fest, a yearly music festival that boasts some of the biggest names in popular music. Kendrick Lamar is a prolific rap artist whose albums and lyrics have found a place deep in the heart of the American Public. People love Kendrick. At Hangout Fest, he gave one of those people the opportunity to join him on stage and rap along to “M.A.A.D. City,” one of the seminal tracks on 2012’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City.” The young woman invited on stage, Delaney, was white. The opening lines to “M.A.A.D City” are,
“Man down
Where you from, nigga?
Fuck who you know, where you from, my nigga?
Where your grandma stay, huh, my nigga?
This m.A.A.d city I run, my nigga”
As one might imagine, this did not go over well. By morning, a video taken by a member of the audience went viral. The scene plays out as such: The video opens with a shot of Delaney on one of the big screens installed to right side of the stage. She is white, has a southern accent, seems between 18 – 20 years old, and, frankly, by tell of her balance and slur, she’s had a bit to drink. Delaney assures Lamar that she’s “got him,” and the beat plays. Delaney raps through the opening lines, and begins the verse – which she appears to know well – when Lamar’s “wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!” shuts down the act. The crowd, upset by Delaney’s use of the N-Word, erupts with sneering boos, and one fan screams, with sickening hate in her voice, “Fuck you, bitch! Fuck, you! Fuck you, bitch!” (more on this later.) Confused, Delaney slurs, “Am I not cool enough for you? What’s up, bro?” Lamar makes reference to another (presumably) white fan he had on stage before Delaney, responding, “my boy Rohan kinda knew the rules a little bit.” Delaney, still confused, says “Will’s just really cool, bro. You just have to work with me.” (A wonderful bit of communication.) Lamar, a little more to the point, tells her, “You’ve gotta bleep one single word, though,” and Delaney, finally understanding, apologizes profusely. She then makes what is probably the most coherent point in the entire exchange, “I’m sorry. I’m used to singing it like you wrote it.” Lamar gives Delaney a second chance, but Delaney, rattled by the situation, scrambles the lines and is subsequently kicked off stage.
One of the most interesting questions this event generates is: why is it that using the N-Word, not spontaneously but in quotation, is a cultural sin by virtue of Delaney’s whiteness alone? Presumably, the young lady, who spent (at least) $299 to attend the festival and enjoy the music that she knows well and loves, who said the N-Word only in the context of recital – lyric recital being the norm at all concerts – had not the intention of being racist, but participating in the recreation of an art piece that obviously means a lot to her after being invited on stage by the artist to do exactly that– dumb as it was on both of their parts. What forces are at play then, in the determination of how one should sound and speak? To dissect this question, I’d like to introduce two concepts of Jennifer Lynn Stover’s: the sonic color line and the listening ear.
The sonic color line describes the process of racializing sound—how and why certain bodies are expected to produce, desire, and live amongst particular sounds—and its product, the hierarchical division sounded between “whiteness” and “blackness.” The listening ear drives the sonic color line; it is a figure for how dominant listening practices accrue—and change—over time, as well as a descriptor for how the dominant culture exerts pressure on individual listening practices to conform to the sonic color line’s norms. Through the listening ear’s surveillance, discipline, and interpretation, certain associations between race and sound come to seem normal, natural, and “right.” (7)
Stover believes that the complications of race play out not only visually but auditorily as well. Through “the sonic color line,” she theorizes that certain ways of speaking come to be known as “black” or “white,” as do certain ways of living that produce sound, such as the conflation of “the sound of hip-hop pumped at top volume through car speakers” (13) with young black men. Stover claims, then, that a racial hierarchy is imposed on these “racial” sounds– the same hierarchy she believes governs the West: whiteness over blackness. This hierarchy is then enforced through “the listening ear,” the set of listening practices that decide each sound’s place in the hierarchy and exert pressure on individuals to change the way they sound and conform to the preferred or “proper” guidelines for sounding. I believe there is some stock in these ideas, however I also believe that Stover’s theory is influenced by her attraction to the post-modern neo-Marxist historical narrative, as she builds “the listening ear” from Michel Foucault’s Theory of Discipline – Foucault being one of postmodernism’s figureheads. (Stover, 14) The postmodern reading of history is essentially binary, in the same way that Marxism was binary in its classifications of proletariat and bourgeoisie; The post-modern neo-Marxist worldview updates these roles to oppressor and oppressed with central themes of power and group identity. (Peterson) Drawing these lines racially, then, the historical focus centers around “the achievements of non-whites, females, and the poor… [and] the historical crimes of whites, males, and the rich.” (Hicks, 17) I believe this is a narrow reading of history, forgetting the achievements of some and the failings of others – all of which must be considered in a honest read. To this point, I will broaden Stover’s ideas through the incorporation of a instance that does not fit the theme of her “culturally materialist… selective case studies” (6) to explore whether these concepts apply to the way culture influences the speech of individuals not of African-American dissent.
In the Lamar incident, the sonic color line – the racialization of sound – seems to materialize here in a sort of reverse-engineering of itself. Instead of identifying a sound thought to be characteristic of a certain group and attaching meaning and value thereafter, it takes a unit of sound that is diverse in its group-belonging, and ascribes meaning and value according to the color of she who produces it. (Now, this does get complicated, as the N-Word does have some cultural affiliation in modern culture, particularly the “-a” variety, but, considering its presence in the mainstream – largely thanks to rap – the word can be considered more broadly as a neutral unit of sound, whose “meaning” is determined by the color of the speaker.) In the case of Lamar, being black gives him a pass, often said, “the right,” to use the N-Word at will. When he uses the word, his skin color racializes his voice, and the word, as “black.” Culturally, this flies. In fact, it’s the third most frequently used word in hip-hop, after “I’m” and “like,” according to a reddit user who “scraped 55k+ song lyrics from Genius.com using [his] Python wrapper.” (textureflow) (I’m trusting the statistics of a Reddit user, because any other study/article I could find on the most used word in hip-hop excluded the N-Word from consideration, and then wrote about how the most used word in hip-hop “isn’t what I think it is” [1, 2,3, 4] ) So, not only is it okay for Lamar to say the word, it’s a large part of his hip-hop identity as well. This is commonly justified through the following argument: the N-Word was used to degrade black people in the past (and still is used for this purpose by some today, but with less frequency,) black people started using the word with friendly intent among themselves – dropping the “hard -r” somewhere along the line – and, because black people did that, it belongs to them, they get to use it, and no one else can. In Lamar’s words,
“Let me put it to you in its simplest form. I’ve been on this earth for 30 years, and there’s been so many things a Caucasian person said I couldn’t do. Get good credit. Buy a house in an urban city. So many things—‘you can’t do that’—whether it’s from afar or close up. So if I say this is my word, let me have this one word, please let me have that word.” (Robinson)
On the outset, this argument might feel right; it’s disheartening to hear how suppressed Lamar has felt in his life, and – whether or not he does so rightfully – he holds whites accountable for that. So, isn’t it only right that he be allowed to deny them something in return– a word symbolic of the oppression he feels they committed against him?
In the context of this incident, the sonic color line delineates two camps those who are “allowed” to say the N-Word, and those who are not. The listening ear takes the form of media, most potently– social media. Delaney’s use of the N-Word plays out as such: Despite the context of its usage, the sonic color line identifies her use of the word as “white” usage. Whereas acceptable intent is awarded to all “black” use of the word (even in lines like 21 Savage’s “You may got a pistol, but this stick is way bigger / I call it ‘KKK’ ‘cause my choppa hate niggas,” [Savage]) “white” usage is always ascribed racist intent. After Delaney’s usage of the word, the crowd resembles a mob. This is telling, culturally, it illustrates the extent to which the sonic color line is embedded in the culture, at least on this issue. One of the greatest ironies of the incident, and very characteristic of the ideas behind racially-bound speech, is in the audible “Fuck you, bitch!” from a member of the crowd. The fan, obviously upset to hear the N-Word in “white” speech and having identified Delaney as racist and, subsequently, deserving of such derision, expresses the extent to which Delaney has wronged her ideas about how a white person should sound. To say those words the way that person did – and I encourage a listen– requires real hate. Yet, the central idea of the N-Word argument, supposedly, is a net reduction in hate. This is a common theme in the bringing about of “peace” through the suppression of people culturally labeled as “racist.” For example, in 2016, the Washington Post picked up a story about multiple Trump rally attendees being attacked by protestors after leaving the building, “Protesters jumped on cars, pelted Trump supporters with eggs and water balloons, snatched signs and stole ‘Make America Great’ hats off supporters’ heads beforeburning the hats and snapping selfies with the charred remains.Several people were caught on camera punching Trump supporters.” (Sullivan, Miller) Otherwise, offenders are taken to trial on social media, like Delaney, and have their names dragged through the mud. At times, this how the listening ear functions through culture regarding the N-Word, and in the case of the rally, voiced support for people it deems unfit.
Thus, it seems, the sonic color line and listening ear do appear to exert themselves across racial boundaries, codifying voice as racial and determining its meaning thereafter, then enforcing cultural preferences for speech, at times even those of minority cultures, through the listening ear. Whether it should or should not, especially in this case, is a difficult question to answer– all the same, we are each influenced by cultural ideas around “proper” ways to sound and, more or less, fall in line.
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Written By Staff Writer Posted October 6. “The Most Commonly Used Word In Hip Hop Isn’t What You Think.” News One, 6 Oct. 2017, newsone.com/3751473/chopper-commonly-used-hip-hop-word/.
