Janet Roark
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Several events that occurred this past week and ended up in the news seemed to strike a very ironic chord with me. The first event: a personnel issue at Helias Catholic where a teacher and coach used a racial slur found its way into the newspaper on Thursday. It is my understanding that the teacher/coach was discussing his dislike for the fact that rappers use the word n——- in their music and get paid for it.
The second event that occurred was a raucous homecoming concert at Lincoln University featuring a rapper named Boosie Badazz that has, apparently, hit songs called “F—- the Police” and “F—- the Police x 10.” It seems x 10 is about how much additional law enforcement had to be lined up that evening to try to keep order for the concert at an additional cost to Lincoln, our city, and county, while the rapper that uses the lyrics that state “we need to be like Khaled n———, and kill cops” played to the crowd. For this musical entertainment, Boosie was paid $25,000.
The Helias Catholic teacher made a point about his dislike of rappers profiting off offensive words. He used the word in a factual way, in context, not to belittle, but to offer a point. For this he was reprimanded and monetarily punished. Meanwhile, across town, an institution of higher learning monetarily rewarded a rapper that uses racial slurs, offensive words, and incites cop killing with a very large paycheck.
Anyone else see the irony?