Recently I found myself sympathising with of all people, Queen of Goop Gwyneth Paltrow. Gwynnie found herself in the eye of a Twitter storm after posting a picture of herself on stage at a Watch the Throne concert with The-Dream, Ty Ty and B-High with the caption “Ni**as in paris for real.” – a reference to a Watch the Throne song. The fact that said picture was taken in Paris didn’t do her any favours and she was forced to then quickly post; “Hold up. It’s the title of the song!” which did little to quell the temporary hate barrage against her. The context it seemed was irrelevant, it just wasn’t acceptable for a white person to use the n-word.
As a white music fan this has had me thinking about the word and my own discomfort with it. I was raised to NEVER to use it under any circumstances so it feels unnatural to be listening to a song (take ‘Man Down’ by Rihanna for instance) with whatever lyrical message it contains before having to suddenly go “Lalalalalala, not this bit”. When Katy Perry covered the aforementioned Watch the Throne song she replaced “ni**as” with “ninjas”, had she not I get the feeling she would’ve been forced into hiding somewhere dark and impenetrable – like Russell Brand’s beard.
While the word “ni**a” , used in rap, hip-hop, r&b and other music genres is different to “ni**er” – the derivative term originating from the age of slavery and segregation, it is impossible to use one without there being connotations of the other. Reclaiming a word from its original term of of abuse may seem like a noble reinvention, but it keeps the old one lingering in human vocabularies.
If you’re still not convinced try and think of it this way; would you be happy with a song called ‘F****ts in Fuerteventura’ (by the Scissor Sisters) or ‘K**es in Kalingrad’ (Regina Spektor perhaps)? Hopefully your answer would be no. While it’s easy to write this off as “political correctness gone mad”, when you can’t put your hand on your heart and be 100% comfortable with a particular group using a word, that speaks volumes. So until such terms become as forgotten as “glaikit” (“thicko” in Scottish) try using an equivalent. ‘Nougat in Paris’ sounds much nicer, don’t you think?
Put the Needle on It 
There’s no difference between ni*ga/er, so don’t believe the hype about that coming from rappers. The bottom on this word is that it’s a derogatory racial slur that was used for centuries to dehumanize and control Black people. And trying to equalize the how Blacks were lynched, enslaved, raped, etc. because of the SKIN COLOR (visible) to the experience of someone’s SEXUALITY (invisible) is just wrong. The main POV here, however, is just because Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Rick Ross, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, etc., etc., etc. are misinformed and miseducated enough to push this derogatory racial slur because they are PAID million$$ to do so (by people who want to stay in power) does NOT make it right.
I think you’ve misunderstood what I’m trying to say here. If you re-read what I wrote, I clearly stated how I didn’t think that the term was acceptable.