Yesterday, we posted a story about the Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse team recording a video of themselves singing along to the part in Lil Dicky’s “Freaky Friday” where Chris Brown sings the word “nigga” a bunch of times. The gag in the song is that Lil Dicky, a white rapper, has swapped bodies with Chris Brown, a black singer, and now has permission to say “nigga.” Deep stuff.
A bunch of readers who have definitely not skipped singing that word in front of a black person at a concert or party took issue with the story, and none was louder or dumber than Fox Sports Radio’s Clay Travis. According to Clay, we had fake-newsed the public. The white lacrosse players in the video were only singing “nigga” because it was “one of the most popular rap songs in America”:
As the Handbook of Racial Rules notes, white people have immunity from any consequences for saying the word “nigga” when it’s within the context of a song. We regret the error.
Travis, who once worked for Deadspin and now lives by the motto “Don’t Be A Pussy” despite his mysterious refusal to show any of the betting slips on his numerous gambling picks, argues that it’s okay for a white person to say “nigga” if it’s part of a song. We’d be more than happy to help him make that point. So here’s our offer to Clay: Record a video of yourself singing along to Chris Brown’s first verse in Lil Dicky’s “Freaky Friday,” and we’ll publish it on our site with the headline “Clay Travis Has Proven Us Wrong.” No lip-syncing! We want to hear your honey-coated voice. If you want, you can switch it up and perform a different song—maybe this hit single from YG. What do you have to lose? You’re self-employed, since you’ve created a hugely successful media empire with your own hands, so no one can fire you.
Please feel free to cheer Clay on using the hashtag #DBAP since he loves it so much.