Lisa Lampanelli who is white, posted a pic of her and actress/writer/director Lena Dunham of HBO’s Girls fame on Twitter. No big deal in itself, but it’s the caption, which used a racial slur (though she’ll tell you different) that is at issue.
Along with the photo, Lampanelli wrote, “Me with my ni–a @LenaDunham of @HBOGirls – I love this beyotch!!” [Editor’s Note: We censored the word in the quote.]
Since receiving criticism for the tweet (you know, the whole you’re white, why are you using the N-word argument), Lampanelli has not apologized. Instead she explained the nuance in the usage of the word and that she intends to keep using it. For real.
The Huffington Post reports:
After we pointed out to Lisa that it was her choice of a certain word, rather than the image, that has people talking, Lisa defended what she wrote.
“The N-word ending in ‘er’ is far different context from the word ending in ‘a.’ Ask any person who knows the urban dictionary, it means ‘friend,'” she said. “And by the way, if I had put the word ending in ‘er,’ that would have been a very derogatory thing about Lena meaning she is less than me, and I view her as very above me. ‘A’ on the end means ‘my friend.'”
“I’ve played every comedy club and every theatre across the country for the last 25 years and seen a lot of audience members from different ethnic persuasions,” she continued. “I have been using these words since I started in comedy and guess what, people? I won’t stop anytime soon, just because your A$$ is up on Twitter. I have always used in my act every racial slur there is for Asians, blacks, gays, and Hispanics. To me, it’s acceptable if the joke is funny and if it is said in a context of no hate. It’s about taking the hate out of the word.”
Actually, the joke wasn’t funny. Also, while there is indeed a difference in the usage of the word that can be denoted in its spelling (making it a term of endearments vs. a racial slur), who gave Lampanelli a pass? Not so surprisingly, by the looks of the retweets she has posted with word of support, a lot of people see no problem with her actions.
Peep the offending tweet on the next page. Let us know what you think of Lampanelli’s stance in the comments.
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Photo: Twitter
