Rap Fans And The N-bomb: Nasty Slur Or Street Slang?

Ralph Berrier Jr. of the Roanoke Times writes in his Sunday column: “Rappers drop the N-bomb all the time. It’s an accepted part of the vocabulary, as much a part of inner-city street life as guns, gangs, drugs and death, a life as unknowable to me as the canals of Mars. Used in that street-life environment, the word does not carry the same kind of racially prejudiced weight that it would if used by a white man in a hood standing in front of a burning cross. I understand context. I’m not sure, though, that 16-year-old boys do, and that’s the problem. The kids in my neighborhood were white boys who enjoyed black rappers. I never said anything to the boys about the use of that word and I guess I regret that.” Read more.