Kendrick Lamar released his long-awaited album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, on Thursday.
One of the tracks on his album, “Auntie Diaries” is winning praise for its inclusive message about transgenderism.
The song is about Kendrick’s aunt who became his uncle and Kendrick’s struggle to accept the transition.
“My auntie is a man now. I think I’m old enough to understand now,” he raps.
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“My auntie is a man now
Asked my mama why my uncles don’t like him that much
And at the parties why they always wanna fight him that much
She said, ‘Ain’t no tellin’
Niggas always been jealous because he had more women
More money and more attention made more envy
Calling him anything but broke was less offending.”
He continued:
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“She wasn’t gay, she ate pu**y, and that was the difference
That’s what I told my friends in second grade
She picking me up from school, they stare at her in the face
They couldn’t comprehend what I grew accustomed to.”
Kendrick repeatedly uttered the gay slur “fa**ot” on the song, which didn’t sit right with journalist Ernest Owens, who is openly gay.
Owens tweeted:
“If Jack Harlow did a song called “Daddy Diaries” where he used the n-word several times to convey how he unlearned his racism from having Black friends — would we be giving him a pass in the way some of y’all are with Kendrick Lamar dropping f-slurs on Auntie Diaries?”
“I want some of y’all to understand that as a Black queer person hearing a cis-het man say that word stings, no matter the context.
That word don’t belong to you, it’s not yours to reclaim and/or reuse to serve your own self-projection of allyship.”
If Jack Harlow did a song called "Daddy Diaries" where he used the n-word several times to convey how he unlearned his racism from having Black friends — would we be giving him a pass in the way some of y'all are with Kendrick Lamar dropping f-slurs on Auntie Diaries?
Ok, then.
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) May 13, 2022
Owens politely asked heterosexual rappers like Kendrick not to define what “support” or allyship means to the gay community.
“Cis-het people in the music world — please, I beg of you, reconsider how you discuss “Auntie Diaries” to Black queer/trans people.
Please don’t tell us what “support” looks like.
Please don’t try to shove YOUR take of what Kendrick meant to US.
Don’t be that person.”
Cis-het people in the music world — please, I beg of you, reconsider how you discuss "Auntie Diaries" to Black queer/trans people.
Please don't tell us what "support" looks like.
Please don't try to shove YOUR take of what Kendrick meant to US.
Don't be that person.
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) May 13, 2022
