Rihanna is furious with Jackie. The Dutch glossy magazine called the world-famous singer a "nigga bitch". In a tweet Rihanna accused the magazine of racism. Jackie has issued its apologies for the "bad joke".
The offending item is headed The Nigga Bitch. The piece is meant as fashion advice for girls who want to dress like Rihanna: a good girl gone bad with a ghetto ass - in short, the ultimate nigga bitch.
• Video: Dutch TV correspondent in US explains why you can't use the word "nigger"
Street
This slang is rife in R&B songs, including those from Rihanna herself. But in another context, these words soon acquire a very different meaning. The Barbados-born singer burst out in anger when she laid eyes on the Jackie text. In a personal tweet, addressed to editor Eva Hoeke, she was blunt: with "nigga bitch" you have deliberately humiliated the black race, she tweets. She concludes with "F*** You!"
Rihanna (Robyn Rihanna Fenty) is one of the most popular singers in the world. She has sold 20 million albums and 60 million singles. On Twitter she has 10.8 million followers, some of whom have also reacted by calling Eve Hoeke such things as a "Nazi whore" and a "Ku Klux Klan sweetheart.
Editor resigns
So Jackie, which has a circulation of 60,000 in the Netherlands, has received worldwide publicity. The editor has subsequently taken the blame and apologised on Facebook. After consultations with the magazine's publishers, Ms Hoeke tendered her resignation, stepping down after eight years in the job. "I have undermined my credibility. These errors, however unintentional they were, can only lead to my departure," she said in a statement.
The dust
The magazine itself is 'enormously shocked' by the angry reactions. Ms Hoeke says the headline of the article was intended as a joke - but admits it was a bad joke, to say the least.
Ms Hoeke stresses that there was "absolutely no racial motive underlaying the choice of words. It was stupid, it was naive to think that this was an acceptable form of slang." On TV and radio, words sometimes fly over your head, and alter your idea of what is apparently normal, she says. She offers Rihanna her apologies on behalf of Jackie, ending with the words "From the bottom of my heart I say it again: it is never our intention for this to hurt anyone. And I mean that."
Whether the singer accepts the apology, we'll quickly find out through Twitter.
(/as/gs)
Email this Article
Printer-friendly version
The more I interact with black people the less I can tolerate them. I used to have an open mind. Majority are rude and feel like you owe them something
Oh wow are you kidding me? Generalizing black people as rude would be as stereotypical as generalizing white people as racists, please you sound extremely ignorant and not to mention rude yourself but then again maybe you are! Besides I don't know why you felt the need to say that since it had nothing to do with the article what so ever and it still doesn't change the fact that the editor who said that about Rihanna was being completely offensive, rude, and racist!
The irony of this whole thing is that in Rihanna's Tweet reply to this incident she went off on the woman as if she were an affronted American. You're not an American Rihanna... You're from Barbados. You should remember that the next time you want to claim the historical significance of a race that you're not even part of.
Wow. You are such a fucking retard. Barbados and MANY other Caribbean countries had slaves BEFORE America did. Are Bajan people not black people? Do some fucking research before you say shit like that
This is all the white mans fault.Maybe if white people werent so lazy they couldve came to the U.S without dragging the Africans out of Africa to do thier dirty work. The blacks built this country, hell, we have the right to do what we please. White people stfu. <3
Get over it!!!
With out the influence of "White man" as you say "Black man" would still be in caves hunting with spears and raping each others wifes and doing any other non-civilized acts.
The whole race thing people should just get over it, it all hapened before any of us was even born so why should it affect us now?
First off, you don't know what civilization Africa would've had if most of their people weren't being taken away from their homeland as slaves, so you sound completely ignorant/retarded by saying that! Secondly, by saying that you just proved that you're just as uneducated and racist as the person who you were responding to in the first place. Seriously what was your intention when replying back? To fight racist with racist? Wow great strategy asshole!
Rihanna isn't even "BLACK" she's from Barbados and has only lived in the US since around 2004! She needs to get the F over it and stop pretending to be exactly what the magazine called her to get more publicity.
I don't get your point. People in Barbados are descendants of African slaves. Nigger is slur against people who are from there. And of course she's black. Jackass. smh
This is all the white mans fault.Maybe if white people werent so lazy they couldve came to the U.S without dragging the Africans out of Africa to do thier dirty work. The blacks built this country, hell, we have the right to do what we please. White people stfu. <3
In the USA its a derogatory term. Black people that use the word are frowned upon also. Trust me, people with half a brain don't talk like that. the ones who do are usually ghetto, comedians, actors or rappers. I'm black and i can't call someone a Nigger. they would look at me like I'm crazy! People who comment here saying Black people can call white people Crackers are full of it. If you do that you run the chance of getting yourself in a fight.
Anyway, Peace!
This directly shows the result of the frequent use of the word "Nigga." Rihanna herself uses the word in her music. This women was neither american nor a native english speaker -- she has a very limited idea of our culture. She hears nigga, bitch, ghetto, etc in popular english songs produced by American icons and therefore thinks they are okay -- even cool -- things to say. Why is Rihanna surprised? If she can't take hearing it, don't say it.
That still doesn't take away from the fact that the editor was completely out of line, and just because one person says it, doesn't mean that you should follow suit! So your point is invalid.
Wow reading some of the comments was hilarious white people are still complaining even after being handed the world on a silver platter no cry me a river you ungreatful ignorant people how dare any of you for one second proclaim to know what it feels like to walk an inch let alone a mile in any black person shoes ....disgusting to read that there is still so much hatred I pray that God has mercy on a lot of people because woe be unto you who messes with a child of God :)
Boo hoo... Cry me a river. It's ok for a black person to call a white person cracker or white boy but as soon as a white person says something about a black they get all emotional . This was said in the nederlands . I'm sure they don't know proper English etiquette . She is a bitch anyway. I'm so sick of affirmative action in this country . No you sholdnt get any benefits just because you are black. That goes to the general public. We should have a white entertainment channel just like B.E.T. ( black entertainment channel ) I'm sure they would riot over that .
Please you're just a racist who is trying to hide behind your words! The last time I checked the word "nigger" was used as a derogatory term against blacks BEFORE blacks started using the word "cracker" as a derogatory term against whites to get back at them, so why are you complaining? Oh and if you're so sick of the affirmative action in this country then why don't you take it up with the president, oh wait i'm sorry the President is black so you can't well tough luck! And by the way there are plenty of white entertainment channels, they're called Fox, ABC, MTV, and all the other hundreds of white-owned television networks. So there you go you racist prick! Happy now or are you still doing that boo hoo....cry me a river thing?
Boo hoo... Cry me a river. It's ok for a black person to call a white person cracker or white boy but as soon as a white person says something about a black they get all emotional . This was said in the nederlands . I'm sure they don't know proper English etiquette . She is a bitch anyway. I'm so sick of affirmative action in this country .
She's not even Jamaican though........lmao.
IT'S ALWAYS A JOKE WHEN BLACK FOLKS ARE INSULTED. STAY FOCUSED AND UNITED BLACK PEOPLE. WE'RE AT WAR.....
we are not at war simply because the war you talk about wouldn't last too long:)(someone would lose really fast)l
The 'N' term could have not been used but rihanna surely deserves the bitch term. People don't respect her coz she doesn't respect herself either.
Pardon me but last time I checked the Dutch along with other European Countries sailed to Africa & enslaved them. So I find it bright of you to complain about a few thousand Africans seeking asylum. Oh! Let's not forget about South Africa either. Talk bout dat!
Why DO black people call each other nigga? I hear it all the time at work. But let a white person even say the word and all hell breaks loose. If you don't want to be called nigga then don't refer to yourself as nigga.
It doesn't make sense to feel offended when words such as (but not limited to): black, white, nigger (including nigger/nigga/negro and other versions), caucasian, brown, yellow, red... Why would you?
Sure, the slavery, that is something bad to feel offended about, and sure, all people are just people, there is no 'better' or 'worse' or some sort of balance. But those words, describing a color, they are just words and colors!
If your skin has a white color, it is just that, white. You're not going to try to make up a new word to define white skin, that's just stupid. Why would you need redundant words? The same goes for black, if your skin has a high level of pigment and thus is a brown or almost black (I've never seen the kind of black that comes out of printers - I guess human skin doesn't do pigments that dark) color, it's just what it is! Black or brown or some other word to describe a color. I don't really see the offense in that, and why would I? If white is not bad, then why would black be bad? There's no logic in it. Two humans with different skin colors. There really is no point in not using colors to describe a color...
Now, there is of course the point of additional meaning of words, such as black or brown referring to people held captive and being forced to work as slaves, but there really is no exclusive link there... In history, humans just enslaved other humans in general. If you were white and went to asia, you would be hunted, captured and enslaved. Same goes for Africa or any other location on this planet. Then, at some point, we started recording stuff in books and started to develop civilization with long-term ethics and suddenly we saw slavery and the ridiculousness of it. Now, that doesn't have anything to do with skin color, not if you look at it in the long run. For example, the last 3000 years. If you only look at the time between 1700 and 1900 and at slavery in the US of A you can of course suggest that the only slaves in that location at that time were people with a black or brown skin color. That might be very relevant if you (or your ancestors) lived then of if that information makes black and brown synonymous to slave. In case the last is what makes people offended.. well, that's just plain stupid. It's like saying all muslims are terrorists and therefore bad and enemies and need to be killed. If that were the case, all the people who would not be a muslim and a terrorist at the same time would be terrorized because there are a lot of muslims. However, reality states that there are only a few terrorist, and only some of them are muslim. So that pretty much nullifies that link. Slavery, by the way, is worse than ever. Today, more people are enslaved than ever before in history. So stop whining about the past (most people from that past are dead and most of their children are old or dead as well), and start fixing the future! Just because something bad was in place, it doesn't allow you to ignore the worse things that are here right now! You can actually do something about it, which would be useful for humanity and not just yourself for a change!
The whole problem with people being offended by specific words that mean completely other things, is that THEY are the ones thinking about different meanings. The problem with that is that the words are for everyone, and need to mean the same thing in order to be useful. So if two people decide that grass has a color and that color is named green, you have a word that describes a color. Now, if you would mention the word green in a conversation or in a title or somewhere else in any other way, that is not supposed to offend anyone, because we all agreed on using that word to describe a color. The same goes for other colors, such as blue or purple. Including black and brown!
And even after all of this, there are people that want to refer to slavery, they want to, for some reason and they try to use skin color as a way to emit that will. Banning words isn't going to make that stop, because if someone wants to say things or make you feel things (be it good or bad), there are always ways to do that. Even without words.
White, black, caucasian, negro, brown etc cannot be placed in the same category as the word nigger/nigga which is a DEROGATORY term used to dehumanise and demean an entire race.
Making song titles such as: 'Dem haters' and 'Do ya thang' doesn't help not being called a nigga does it now...
First of all, no one says "nigga bitch" in rap. Secondly, when rappers say "bitch" or "nigga" in their music, people also say that it is disrespectful. Instead of crafting an objective article about the facts, you offered a slant painting Rihanna as an overreacting hypocrite. Poor taste.
They could at least get their facts straight. It should have been "niggabitchHO"
First off the magazine was not speaking to all black people! They were talking to Rihannas stanky ass. Secondly the word nigga doesnt mean black person. Yeah we use the term amongst each other but, it doesn't mean it applies to us. Thirdly it's funny to me that Rihanna gets offended that someone called her that word, when to tell the truth Rihanna does dress stanky! Does she act like a nigga?, I don't know! Is she a bitch, probaly! But all blacks aren't offended, but Rihanna should be. Respect yourself and others will too. Shoot I love the sistas, but I love the sistas to repect themselves more! Stay black!
Serious dialogue is needed about race and racism in the Netherlands. I found people there a little insensitive at times they would make comments such as "the blacks" "the Muslims" as if they where the "other sub-human group". All I am saying is, it would not hurt to have dialogue as welcoming and progressive as one may think you are?
Post new comment
Please be reminded all comments must be in English, short and to the point - guideline 250 words. Abusive and inappropriate comments will be removed.