Back in 2017, Massachusetts rapper Joyner Lucas released a song named “I’m Not Racist.” It has grabbed the controversial attention of man groups. The media company, CNN, considered it “a brutal race conversation that no one wants to have.”
The song makes the listener hear two different perspectives of racial discrimination in the United States. The first perspective is from a white man and the second is from a Black man. Both perspectives are voiced by Lucas, and the perspectives are separated by verses.
The first verse talks about the white man’s outlook of the racial discrimination. He explains that it’s unfair that he, as a white person, cannot say the N-word. He also says that Black men are exactly what stereotypes describe them to be. For example: not claiming their son, selling drugs and much more. He also makes jokes about slavery by implying that today’s generation of Black people weren’t alive during slavery times so they shouldn’t be pissed about it.
Then, the second verse takes on the Black man’s view on racial discrimination. The Black man offers a point-by-point rebuttal. He explains the history behind the N-word and how he is affected by history of slavery despite not being alive then. Furthermore, he goes a little off-topic by mentioning how coming to a Black Lives Matter protest yelling “All Lives Matter” is a protest to his protest. He also mentions the numerous incidents of white people appropriating Black culture. He adds how white people hated Barack Obama during his presidency and couldn’t wait to put a “cracker” back in the White House, obviously talking about Donald Trump.
When Lucas released the song, he also released a music video. The music video takes place in an empty room with a white man wearing a MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat and a Black man with locs having the conversation in the song. It has received more than 100 million views on YouTube.
Thanks to this song, the rapper received a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video and got certified Gold by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) in 2017.
NOTE (to add in the caption): First of all, cracker is not a slur because you cannot oppress the oppressor. Do not come at us. Second of all, I made use of “locs” instead of dreadlocks due to the history behind the word. The slave owners used to find locs dreadful so they named the hairstyle “dreadlocks.” The hairstyle is clearly not dreadful so it’s referred to as “locs”.
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