I gotta say, i disagree. If he's saying that simply repeating the name of a song necessitates an apology, that's just ridiculous. If that's the argument, then the problem is not with the person saying the name of the song, it's with the person who chose that name for the song.

I also think that her use of asterisks makes it obvious that she put some thought into this issue before she posted. This action says to me that her line of thought was, "Hm, as a white person, it's probably not appropriate for me to say that word, even in the context of a song title. Better clean it up, just to be careful."

Jay's "analysis" isn't insightful. It's plain wrong. The only reason she was defending the use was because her use was attacked. And wouldn't her defense merely indicate that all those who have done the attacking are the ones who are "attached" to the term?  In any event, the defense—that this was the name of the song being performed, not that this was simply a piece of cool vernacular thrown in to garner some kind of tweet cred—is totally legitimate.

If his argument is as he states, what can be said about *his* demand for an apology? Is that not a great demonstration of attachment?

I completely disagree with the commenters who say that she was "just" giving the name of the song.

She was giving the name of the song in the context that the two black men responsible for it are actually in Paris performing it.

The "for real" is a not-so-clever double meaning... it's the name of the song, and it's happening right now!

She should take responsibility for the double meaning.  No one would criticize her if she simply said that Jay-Z and Kanye performed "Ni**as in Paris" at their show in Paris.  NO ONE.

You can't convince me that there is any word that is inherently hateful to use regardless of context. You also can't convince me that people don't have the inherent right to be hateful if they choose to be. This is a case of attempted censorship, and I don't see the reasoning behind it.

It's reactions like these that make me fear that the U.S. is still much more racist than I thought.

Upfront, I refuse to use asterisks to "bleep" the word. We aren't infants here and if you are just offended by reading a word without asterisks, you are an idiot. Everybody read Huckleberry Finn right? 

I'm going to go on a tangent a bit and then I'll get back to Paltrow. I think it's worth recognizing that for many blacks, especially black youths, "nigga" is not the same word as "nigger." "Nigga" is almost exclusively used by blacks and is more akin to the use of "brotha" when used among blacks. In my youth, my friends and I used to use the world "nigga" to refer to each frequently. While it differs from community to community, at least in the time and place where I grew up, the word "nigger" was still deprecated and not used by anyone. Anyway, if a random white kid used "nigga," no matter the context, I would have been outrage, even though my friends called me that all the time. I probably wouldn't have been able to articulate my objection at the time, but in retrospect, I realize my anger would be that a white person doesn't understand how culturally blacks use the term and because they are unfamiliar with our variations on the English language that their use of the term is indistinguishable from "nigger." I actually say this because there was one white kid in neighborhood who grew up around us and would refer to myself and my friends as "niggas." None of us were bothered by it because we intuitively felt that even though he was white, he understood how we used the word, and thus it was OK for him to use it (edit: also, the rest of us black kids used to use racial terms to refer to him, so it would have been quite hypocritical to chastise him!) Of course now, I really wish black people would stop using "nigga" to refer to each other for two reasons. While very few use it this way now-a-days, it was not uncommon for lighter skin blacks to call darker skin blacks "niggers" in a derogatory way, so the black community has used the term in a negative racial context themselves. But my primary reason is that black people don't live in some bubble, we live in a country where the term has very different cultural meaning for over 85% of the population. Using a racially charged word to speak to one another, and then turning to everyone else and saying "this word is off limits" does nothing but to promote cultural division and animosity between races. It tells non-blacks that blacks have their own culture that sets us apart and that we are somehow "different" from everybody else. Many non-blacks already think this way, without being overt racists, and this continues to harm black integration in broader segments of society.

Now, I think context matters. If it's a non-offensive context, you have the right to use whatever word you want. In the case of Paltrow, I give her pass, but she should be careful with how she used in in context. She trivially has the right to say the name of an already existing song. However, she wrote "ni**as in paris for real" which could be read as having a duel meaning. It could be read as her just promoting the song. Or it could be read as a tongue-and-cheek way of her saying that two niggas are in paris for real, referring to Kanye West and Jay-z being "niggas in Paris," which would be a wildly inappropriate use of the term. However, I always give people the benefit of the doubt when I can, especially since I doubt Paltrow is actually a racist - so I give her a pass.

wow, kind of surprised by some of the responses so far.

Jay-Z himself said white people should just call the song "Paris."

you can't overlook the fact that power dynamics are involved. that's why it's completely different for a white girl to say it than it is for black people. if you're black, it's possible for you to reclaim it from it's racist roots and use it as a positive. but us white folks, there's really no other reason to use it. our use of it as an oppressive tool for centuries pretty much bans us from ever saying it in an acceptable context.

so, yes, context matters. and if your context is whiteness, just don't say it. 

That is a very good argument, and probably one that could be applied to other slurs as well. A great watch indeed!

Maybe men should stop using the word bitch so we as women can reclaim the power of the word.... how are you going to tell someone how and what to say about a song you titled and then speak derogatory about others in your songs as well.  hey JayZ and Kanye--- stop using the word Bitch...... you should just use BUH.... hey gwen  dont use the word nigga.... use the word NUH.  There are plenty of terms that are used in a disrespectful manner such as "no homo"  "bitch" "nigga" "ho" but the biggest perpetrators of using these words are never boycotted or told to use another word.. she is no different than the rappers that she supposedly offended.  here's a tip- if you dont want people using a specific word that is in title of your song... dont put it in.... no one complains everytime kanye says ho or bitch or fag or whatever... if society and the artists fans are going to be held responsible for their shit then maybe the artists need to accept more responsibility for what they put out. 

Caucasians use of the n word will always be a sensitive area for black America especially if you grew up in the 1960-80's.
Until the U.S. government officially enslaving blacks in America the sensitivity of the wounds will remain. Of course not all the blame falls on whites for we as African Americans have been irresponsible in the use of the word.?

Is that photo showing what looks like a view from the stage and Paltrow's Tweet an actual photo of her on stage with Jay-Z and (the ever-gracious Kanye West) at the show she was tweeting about?

If so, then she didn't just go to the show; she was on stage too, even if it was just to hang out with her ni.. uh, her African American friends (I assume she wasn't there to sing backup vocals). If so, maybe that's why she was feeling so "comfortable" about using the shortened slang version of the big bad unmentionable word. Like Eminem, maybe she's gansta enough to say it when she's around her homies, which she was this time.

There should probably be a separate feed for when white people want to post something that they don't think is or intend to be racist but has an above-average chance of being interpreted that way; maybe call it "Twitta" and it'll be understood that the twits tweeting twittas aren't racist, just conflicted and awkward when it comes to desiring to express one's affiliation with a group by adopting it's jargon (then people could say "Oh, she posted it on Twitta which means it's not racist. She's just another bumbling cracka doing the best she can to hang with the cool kids"). Conversely, Jay-Z and Kanye can only tweet the word "cracka" on Twitta for the same reason. But if a black person uses the word "cracka" (or "cracker") or a white person "nigga" (or "nigger") on Twitter then they shall be punished by having to watch a 3 minute online video that deconstructs and analyzes their offense.

Who the hell is "Jay Smooth" and why should I care what the heck he says?

Well, I sure am glad we are finally having that serious conversation about race. 

If you ask me (which no one did), this is just an example of why punctuation is so important.  If Paltrow had written "'N****s in Paris' for real!" it probably wouldn't have been such a scandal, since it would have been obvious that she was referring to the song.

Grammar: it's important.

I agree with Jay Smooth, honestly.  I don't know if Gwyneth Paltrow is actually biffskies with Jay-z and Kanye West, and if she uses that word in their presence without being called out, whatever (or is she has other "black friends" who think it's funny when the famous white lady uses the word ironically).  BUT she wasn't using it in the context of her friends, and she WASN'T using it in the colloquial context that many black people do (to mean "my good male friend").  To be fair, she wasn't using it in an explicitly cruel way, to dehumanize them, and she was quoting a song.  But, she was using it pretty literally: to refer to two black men in Paris, and she was making the statement in a public forum.

I also don't think the reaction would be quite the same had it not been a white female sex symbol to make that tweet. 

Based on the comments, I think Jay Smooth is spot on to say some white people are ridiculously attached to the word.  No one is saying "censor everything forever" or "burn everyone who says it at the stake," but so many comments are about "my fweedomz!!!1" as if any are being taken away.  Being told "it's rude, insensitive, and hurtful to refer to black people with the n-word, even if it's a joke" is not exactly repealing the first amendment.  Plus, Jay-Z, probably that last word on this specific instance, said that white people should use an alternate title.

Getting offended over the use of a word in direct quotation of a works title, in the context of that work being performed, sounds to me like the sort of gross misrepresentation of politically correct speech that somebody would make up in order to make the idea look absurd and to defend their own obviously offensive use of derogatives.

Yet here we are.

Paltrow did nothing wrong.   She gave a shout out to her friend (and she really is friends with Beyonce and Jay-Z) by using the name of his song in a tweet.  

If you don't want people to use the word, go after the artists who use it so frequently in their music.

BTW, why aren't all the good liberals and "feminists" using the same amount of energy going after males who use b*tch and wh*re, etc in their songs and lyrics?  Why aren't they berating men for their rampant use of hideously sexist, disgusting words?

the one who calls a song like that is to blame not someone who uses the correct name of a song. ridiculous discussion. like a witch hunt.

Being attacked because someone else quoting a song title on your twitter account isn't necessarily about being defensive about being allowed to use the n-word: it could entirely be frustration with people ignoring and dehumanizing you in order to express their generic sense of frustration and alienation.  Even though that sense is justified, so is the defensive reaction from the person being attacked by random strangers.

If he really wants to go into technicalities on how language "works" you all need to understand how words evolve. Re-appropriation as people like to call black people on using the word "nigga", is an example. First you need to know where the term "nigger" even originated from. People used to refer to African peoples as "negros" or "negras" and Niger and derivatives of that word are seen in languages around Africa and especially in Romantic languages. Spain and France were prominent settlers of the Americas and the word was not originally used to talk down to those of African heritage because words in their language had terms like "negro" from the Portugese and Spanish languages. You could almost say early N. American settlers "re-appropriated" the word to mean something negative when the word was originally used to simply describe African slaves and then to derogatorily insult them. As language evolved "nigger" had stood out prominently in USA culture as something bad. If you look at today's society people who cannot tell in which context "nigger" and "nigga" are different obviously group them together. If a spanish speaker were to describe a black person as "negro" the black person may be offended unless educated on the context. "Nigga", derived from "nigger" which originated from the color black in Latin, appropriated to be a form of "friend" or "guy" in today's society should not be looked down upon and if the proper education on "language context" is taught, these misunderstandings and proper uses or "standards" of the word can be avoided all together. Many people do not realize that white friends use it among themselves and their peers, asians use it, those of non-African Hispanic heritage use it, the word "nigga" has been used to denote familiarity and not racism. Gwenyth Paltrow may have used the word "nigga" to describe that two black men are in Paris and for that she is not necessarily wrong if she was familiar with the two, but that fact that it was just for a show and in context she used it to describe the performers on stage with "Ni**as in Paris FOR REAL" (as in there are really two niggas in Paris) and not the song is what is wrong. She is dumb, but the right to use the word "nigga" should be anyone's, as it describes familiarity and friendship or a neutral equivalent to "dude" or "guy" and has evolved in such a way; otherwise the right to call someone a "nigger" should be frowned upon within US society. Many may disagree with me, my point of view of the world is naturally gray; people have treated me "too white to be black and too black to be white" so I must see the world in such a way, gray. (if he wishes to argue semantics and officialism of proper usage when it come to language he must also respect how language evolves in the first place)

People disagree because they are white or just ignorant, maybe a combination of both. They don’t understand w.e.b theory of the veil. White peoples don’t see it as racist because they don’t understand the struggle of black oppression. Sad how many people disagree. Be smarter and know your place on what to quote or verbatim.