Why Kendrick Lamar’s “Auntie Diaries” Has Polarized the LGBTQ+ Community

"***got, ***got, ***got, " we can say it together
"But only if you let a white girl say, 'Nigga'"

Sounds like a deal.

really? why do people still not understand the difference between author and character (even if that character is a younger version of the author)

I still gotta listen to his new album. This is like, the year of the double album, with Big Thief, Beach House, and now Kendrick.

I hate when I shoot my foot cause.

Technically everything i say is as the character of myself when i was younger.... Even if its only a few seconds younger

*squeezes hand comfortingly*

I think you're giving the man more credit than he deserves.

What's hilarious is this song was clearly designed by Kendrick as a sort of Macklemore type pandering to the woke crowd and it's still somehow over the line. This is why you don't negotiate with terrorists like adi.

I think you're just a liberal who cares more about civility politics that amount to bad word Puritanism rather than being concerned with real world cultural politics. I mean the far right is on the rise threatening democracies all around the world and using gay and trans people as scapegoats for supposed cultural degeneracy and if given half a chance will use that **** to "encourage" you all back in the closet but dimwits concern themselves with an artist spreading an actually good message because he uses bad words.

Kendrick to his homies right before writing the song:

"I bet you guys i can drop 10 F bombs in a single song without getting cancelled....."

https://i.imgur.com/1MqRSBC.png
Why, what other way is there to interpret it? He describes the messy reaction of his past self to trans family members coming out, and he directly shows the messiness of it. That doesn't seem inappropriate to me.

I guess you didn't read the article, the same story/point could have been made without misgendering and deadnaming. Not to mention dropping the f-bomb, for which he should have taken the advice at the end but decided not to.

I skimmed it but I don't agree. I'm pretty sure he's not misgendering and deadnaming, he is depicting his past self doing so. And of course that's uncomfortable, but that's the point, that's what that kind of messy, inept process of learning tolerance is like. This way the point comes across more strongly than if he just described it in a less direct way I think

Yeah it's supposed to have an effect on the listener. The listener is supposed to be smart enough to analyze that effect though.

Context is dead, all text is literal now, Johnny Cash actually shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, Dead Kennedys actually killed children, Randy Newman actually hates short people, etc.

I knew it! Murray Acton's **** really does stink.

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

I doubt anyone actually believes this is a serious issue, it's just frivolous think piece fodder.

What, deadnaming and misgendering and using the f-word or the disagreement in that this was done "in character". Question, can any white person in music use the n-word "in character"?

Look I wouldn't expect an accountant to understand art.

Yes, Randy Newman did it with the song Rednecks, it's sung from the perspective of a southerner calling out liberal hypocrisy on racism.

But that was the 70s which was a very different time, it wouldn't fly today regardless of intent and Randy rarely performs it.

I can't say I agree with people who think context doesn't matter and it raises eyebrows from me when people say that but also have no problem with black people using the N word because by doing that they're accepting that context does indeed matter, they're just picking and choosing which contexts they think are acceptable and which they do not.

Exactly. So today, in 2022, are there any mainstream white artists who would dare to use the n-word in any context whatsoever in their music? I think the answer is nope, none. Why? And why do we have a straight artist deliberately using the f-word repeatedly in his song? What is the difference? The irony is that he works towards the same point at the end of the song, and yet choses not to take the advice anyway. To me that sounds like a deliberate provocation. It's saying, yeah people might be offended but I don't care. Which only a dickhead would do. :/

That's not what he's doing. He's illustrating the kind of behaviour of someone who thinks he understands and is a good ally but isn't, and then showing he's not by depicting his trans relatives being uncomfortable around him and pointing out his hypocrisy. So instead of saying 'i got this advice but now I'm doing this anyway, it's ok because I mean well, congrats to all the flawed allies for trying' he's holding up a critical mirror to that behaviour by saying 'this is what I did, and what many other people do thinking they're being good allies, but here's why that's not true'. He takes the advice. Using the word ***got in a song for illustrative purposes is not the same as calling someone a ***got.

And about white people doing the same with the word ******: the fact that Randy Newman is not cancelled does show that the two things above are not the same. And sure, nowadays even that song would be sensitive, but that's just because ****** is considered a more severe slur than ***got. We've debated that before and you may think that's unfair, but it's true. And I'm really not an expert on slurs in the English language but I think that's grounded in history

I think that's a way more complex interpretation of the song than I think comes out of any straightforward reading, but to each their own.

And yes we've debated that before (and covered history as well) and I still don't see why the two words should be treated differently. For me the only difference is that black people have managed to fight for their position to be heard and taken seriously, queer people obviously have a ways to go. :/

I know you have a hard time taking black people seriously but Kendrick is known for his complexity.

Oh man the position of black people on their discrimination does not get heard a lot of the time, just like for LGBT people. And the severity of a slur is not necessarily proportional to the discrimination that that group of people faces

This isn't just any ol' context. It would be the equivalent of Ed Sheeran saying he used to call black people ******s but has now seen the error of his ways, which would be a hell of a trick to pull off but I'd bump that ****.

We should be at least a little sympathetic to anyone who addresses their homophobia and transphobia even if they don't do it in the most graceful way.

And we're talking about hip hop here, a genre of music that has had serious issues with homophobia and transphobia throughout most of it's existence, that the most acclaimed rapper of this generation is addressing it at all should be considered a good thing.

Adi might enjoy some Johnny rebel.

You don't get an opinion.

it's obvious his anti black bias comes almost entirely from being jealous of how serious the n word is taken... **** is hilarious lol

That's the most ungenerous, half-assed way anyone has ever chosen someone's side lol

Also actually you're the only mb member who deserves getting dunked on at random (but affectionately)

I guess you weren't here for when he got dragged for claiming Cardi B was dumb cause she talked like a black person.

lol I'm not sure that's quite equivalent.

Ed Sheeran is the Kendrick of the pop world now?

I picked a white guy who's popular that I thought would be funny. I'm too old to know what the kids are listening to anymore.

Harry Styles would've been a better choice.

Not as funny as a white supremacist Ed Sheeran.

Conservatives are currently trying to outlaw being trans everywhere that they have political power, sorry if I don't think rap lyrics is the most important issue concerning LGBT people right now.