Great piece. I am reminded of a few things. A) Paul Wall is a good rapper too, and to the best of my knowledge has never used the n-word. For that matter Mac Miller a good rapper/musician/all around cool person, gone too soon. No I am not forgetting a certain someone from Michigan, I just don't rate him that highly. B) the "but when can I say the n-word" discourse kind of reminds me of the scenarios people come up with for when torture can be justifiable, the ticking time bomb scenario. Or even the trolley problem. But someone that causes real world pain for someone else isn't your fun thought experiment (and the fact that people ultimately WANT to say the n-word/torture someone/become the arbiter of life and death, does not speak well of those people). C) I am reminded of Louis CK's bit about "why say the n-word, everyone knows what you mean and now in everyone's head they're saying [the n-word]. So just say [the n-word]." Surprise surprise that he turned out to be a reactionary type too. I like some transgressive comedy, and it doesn't always have to punch purely up, but that was an interesting canary in the coal mine for him.
Great piece. I am reminded of a few things. A) Paul Wall is a good rapper too, and to the best of my knowledge has never used the n-word. For that matter Mac Miller a good rapper/musician/all around cool person, gone too soon. No I am not forgetting a certain someone from Michigan, I just don't rate him that highly. B) the "but when can I say the n-word" discourse kind of reminds me of the scenarios people come up with for when torture can be justifiable, the ticking time bomb scenario. Or even the trolley problem. But someone that causes real world pain for someone else isn't your fun thought experiment (and the fact that people ultimately WANT to say the n-word/torture someone/become the arbiter of life and death, does not speak well of those people). C) I am reminded of Louis CK's bit about "why say the n-word, everyone knows what you mean and now in everyone's head they're saying [the n-word]. So just say [the n-word]." Surprise surprise that he turned out to be a reactionary type too. I like some transgressive comedy, and it doesn't always have to punch purely up, but that was an interesting canary in the coal mine for him.