Justin Bieber Uses The N Word In A Joke, Do You Think That Make's Him Racist ?

[themoneyman101 2,870]

I recently ran across A video on MTV.com, and it had A video of Justin Bieber telling A joke "Why Are Black People Scared Of Chainsaws" or something like that, and the answer was Run N**er, Run N**er do you think that makes him racist

[themoneyman101 2,870]

Ok but I have A question for you two, It is common in rap songs for that word to be used and it has made alot of controversy because african americans worked hard for many years to gain equal rights and abolish the use of that word towards them, so what do you think of it being used in music ?

[steve25805 126,015]

I think a lot depends upon whether a word is being used to actually express racism or not. But unfortunately, so many people do and have in the past used the N word as something deliberately derogatory in a racist way that the word itself has come to be seen as offensive by many people. Because of this, non-black people are on shaky ground if they use this word because it will likely be viewed as racist by many, even if not intended in that way. Black people can get away with using this word much more easily because the very fact that they are black themselves removes any suspicions of anti-black racism being involved. I do believe that this latter fact ought to be recognised rather than being itself viewed as an example of racist double standards.

And to be totally honest, those of us with a somewhat paler than black skin colour know that - rightly or wrongly - many people DO find the N word offensive, and in the vast majority of situations we have no need at all to use such a word which can easily be avoided. The sort of exceptions that might apply would be, for example, if someone were giving evidence under oath and asked in court to repeat the exact words of somebody else who used that word whilst committing a crime or something. Otherwise, if we don't want to run the risk of being thought of as racists - even mistakenly - why use the word at all? There is no need to do so.

As for Bieber's "joke", humour with a racist element can be funny if it is not seen as overly malicious. I myself have laughed at the typical British Englishman, Scotsman, Irishman jokes before, where the Irishman is invariably made to look silly, yet I harbour not an ounce of malice or racism towards the Irish. But to get away with racist humour, it actually does need to be funny. And Bieber's "joke" fails dismally on that score so just ends up offending people.

As far as Bieber is concerned, the biggest joke of all is the apparent popularity of - what I will loosely refer to as - his "music"! :laugh:

[Admin 14,788]

Everything I wanted to say about this has already been summed up, but I also wanted to bring up the Jeremy Clarkson 'scandal' too. For those who missed it:

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The first part of the clip (which caused all the controversy) was an out-take from tv show, Top Gear. It was from years ago I believe, but a newspaper recently dug it up, prompting lots of people to demand Clarkson be fired. The whole thing seemed ridiculous to me (the second part of the clip kind of demonstrates that point). How anyone can think someone should lose their job over something like that is beyond me! I can only assume that a lot of people don't understand racism - or at least have a different view of what's racist than I do. Mumbling the N word does not make you racist. Saying a joke to your friends (especially when you're just a kid) does not make you racist. Race jokes can be funny, and it's sad that political correctness has got to a stage where some topics seem to be 'off limits' to joke about. I agree with Egwalrus completely that some people seem to be able to say 'offensive' words and some people apparently cannot. I don't particularly like Bieber (and I think his music is dreadful), but as soon as I heard about this story I knew it was going to be blown out of proportion.

[steve25805 126,015]

Glad you bought up Clarkson, Admin. I myself find it incredibly mean-spirited and vindictive of people to demand that someone be sacked over such a thing. The self-righteous holier-than-thou brigade out there - and we've all met them - who think people should be sacked for the tiniest thing to satisfy their own wholly disproportionate sense of self-righteous self-importance. Who the fuck do these sad bastards think they are?

Besides, all too often - and I am sure this is the case with Clarkson - the alleged "offence" is just an excuse for people who in fact detest everything he stands for in some other area.

There are, for example, armies of sad cases out there, afraid of the roads they drive on, ever calling for ever lower speed limits everywhere, the kind of people who think doing 50mph on a motorway is living life on the edge, and the obsessive safety freaks who won't be happy until the Red Flag Acts are re-instituted, and for whom the very idea that driving ought to be fun is anathema - these hate Clarkson for a start as the champion of petrolheads everywhere, who loves driving, loves cars, loves driving at pleasurable speeds, shares the common motorists' loathing of speed cameras, etc. They hate him for it and would love to shut him up.

And then there are the eco-warriors, green enthusiast, environmentalists, whom Clarkson openly disdains and often mocks in highly humourous ways. They'd love to shut him up too.

Many of his opinions are socially unreconstructed, straight out of the handbook of 1970s attitudes, whilst his politics tend to be pretty right wing in most areas which can aggravate quite a few lefties and liberals.

All these groups hate him in large measure for what he stands for and want to see the back of him because his humour can be very effective at making them and what they stand for look silly. They latch onto scandals such as the above as an excuse, but it is not what drives most of them. They just want to shut him up because of some massive disagreement with some aspect of what he stands for, in other words trying to hype up some alleged offence out of all proportion to silence him more generally and to shut him up. This is in fact an attempt at an anti-libertarian censorship by his detractors and this disgusts me far more than anything Clarkson himself has said or done.

And cards on the table here. I myself recognise the reality of global warming and the importance of green issues, I myself am the kind of left wing liberal he often expresses mild disdain for and mocks, and I have left 1970s social attitudes in the dustbin of the past. But the guy is as entitled to his views as I am to mine, and furthermore he is damn good at the job he does, entertaining millions of us in a TV niche that suits him perfectly, and often being quite funny with it. I enjoy Top Gear, the success of which he is central to. I doubt whether the program would be half as good without him. I find his humour often quite funny, even when he is mocking the things I myself might believe in!

And didn't someone important once speak out for free speech by saying somthing like - I may object to your views but I will fight to the death to defend your right to express them.

Spot on!

The sad bastards who want to shut him up because he dares to disagree with their most treasured opinions need to get a life!

[Admin 14,788]

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I may sound hypocritical after my last post, but I think this latest video is too far.

[themoneyman101 2,870]

Well Besides Justin Bieber, I Found This One Where A woman goes off on the guy for starting his car and using racist comments in front of her children

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