Rihanna, Common and Maya Angelou Caught Up In N-Word Controversies

The week's hardly over but already two different controversies related to the N-word have surfaced. Dutch magazine Jackie dropped jaws when it published a piece that referred to Barbadian pop star Rihanna as the " ultimate n----r b---h." Editor Eva Hoeke, who just announced her resignation over the controversy, said that this hateful description of Rihanna was supposed to be a joke. I'm curious as to how the coupling of two terms known for disparaging blacks and women is humorous.

Hoeke admitted on the magazine's Facebook page that the joke was a bad one, but that's as far as she went. She took little responsibility for what happened, saying that the piece was published without her reading it over beforehand (even though it appeared it in a headline) and that there was "no racist motive behind the choice of words." She chalks the controversy up to a misguided use of slang.

But would this particular writer have referred to, say, Katy Perry or Lady Gaga in the same way? After all, the writer used the term "n----r b---ch" to describe Rihanna's risqué wardrobe and behavior, and Perry, Gaga and just about every female pop star these days follows suit. How about the fact that the writer also described Rihanna's backside as "ghetto." I question if Britney Spears' backside would be described similarly. The terminology used to describe Rihanna was chosen because she's black. That makes it racist. But Hoeke's determined to let the writer off the hook for this, saying of the N-word:

'It was naïve to think that this was an acceptable form of slang. You hear it all the time on TV and radio, then your idea of what is normal apparently shifts - but it was especially misguided: there was no malice behind it."

It's high time to retire that excuse for using the N-word. It doesn't matter that the N-word is used in popular culture or that some black people use it. Many black people oppose it, such as writer Maya Angelou, who reportedly became upset recently when she learned that Chicago rapper Common used the term in a song featuring her called "The Dreamer."

"I had no idea that Common was using the piece we had done together on [a track] in which he also used the N-word numerous times," Angelou told the New York Post. "I'm surprised and disappointed. I don't know why he chose to do that."

It doesn't matter that the N-word can be heard in a gazillion rap songs or that some black people use it. The problem is that the word is still a slur and for some blacks it remains deeply offensive, no matter if a fellow black person says it or if a person from another racial group does.