It seems to be that in the news everyday we read or hear of a new story where a young American was shot by a cop, specifically of the opposite color. Racism seems to be a vital part of the American system each and everyday, it is time to take a stop and see how vital it is.
Most recently stories have come about of Roseanne Barr and Kendrick Lamar. Two big names in the tabloids, one a leading TV star and another a rapper and songwriter.
Here is some background:
Roseanne Barr
As you may know Roseanne from hit TV show Roseanne, which was airing a new season, which started in March, but after a Tweet that Barr had in response to Valerie Jarrett the show was cancelled.
(FYI: Valerie Jarrett is an African-American women who served throughout the presidency of Obama as his senior adviser.)
The Tweet that got Roseanne cancelled:
Muslim brotherhood & plant of the apes had a baby = vj
Barr later came out to apologize, saying that it was just a joke and that ambien was the result of this Tweet.
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar is known for his four album releases and being featured in songs. He has most recently been featured in The Black Panther album. Controversy came out during his performance at the Alabama Hangout Festival when he pulled a fan on stage, white female Delaney, and had her rap the words to m.A.A.d. City, which features the N-word multiple times.
During her time on stage she was stopped repeatedly by Lamar for her use of the N-word and he had told her to say "bleep." After she was told this not once, but twice, he removed her from the stage after she had been booed by the fans.
As she was on stage and was stopped, she asked what the problem was with Kendrick telling her to bleep out the word. Her response:
Did I do it? I'm so sorry ... I'm used to singing it like you wrote it.
Where am I leading with this?
These two cases go to show that racism is still relevant and it needs to be talked about.
Research done by NBC News showed that 64% of Americans say racism is still a major problem and only 1% said that racism has never been a major problem.
We could also discuss the double-standard that goes along with racism. As Kendrick Lamar wrote those lyrics, in hopes that people would listen to his music and learn the lyrics, why would he not think about the double standard that comes along with it when a white person raps the N-word.
As I do not agree with the context of what Barr posted, joke or not, do we have a right to speak out mind?
These are little things that we need to consider each and every day, before we speak, before we send that tweet, before we write that song, etc. We cannot overthink that racism as it is seen every day in society.
