Let’s be clear from the jump: If you’re not Black, you don’t get to say the N-word. Period. It’s not complicated. It’s not a debate. And it’s damn sure not your word to reclaim.

Yet here we are again. Another non-Black rapper—this time That Mexican OT—tossing around the N-word in songs and interviews like it’s punctuation. And predictably, the internet is torn. Some fans are outraged, while others shrug it off with the same tired excuses: He grew up around Black folks. He’s part of the culture. He didn’t mean it like that.

Let’s kill the noise.

“Growing up around Black people” doesn’t give you honorary Black status. If proximity granted privilege, Clarence Thomas would be leading a reparations rally. Culture is not osmosis. You don’t get to absorb the pain, struggle, and history behind the N-word just because you’ve been to a few cookouts or listened to Lil Wayne on loop.

The N-word isn’t just a trendy lyric or a spicy bit of slang. It’s a loaded term with centuries of trauma, reclamation, and resistance baked into every syllable. When Black people use it among ourselves, it’s a complex act—sometimes defiant, sometimes endearing, always personal. When non-Black people use it, it’s cosplay. It’s entitlement. It’s theft.

What’s worse, many of these artists know it’s wrong. But they keep doing it because controversy fuels streams. They weaponize the N-word to signal “realness” and “authenticity,” banking on the fact that outrage will push their names further into the algorithm. That’s not allyship—that’s exploitation.

And let’s not ignore the silence from the industry. Labels, streaming platforms, and some media outlets turn a blind eye because controversy sells. A viral freestyle with a slur? That’s engagement, baby.

We need to talk about the quiet complicity from fans too. Too many Black fans still give passes to non-Black artists because they’re “talented” or “cool” or “one of us.” But if we don’t hold the line, who will? Because believe this—if a Black artist casually dropped a slur about another community, the career cancellation would be swift and merciless.

This isn’t gatekeeping. It’s self-respect. It’s boundary-setting. It’s protecting the language that was forged in our fire, not theirs.

So no, That Mexican OT and others like him aren’t “just saying a word.” They’re playing dress-up with a history they didn’t live, a pain they didn’t inherit, and a pass they were never given.

And if they can’t build a career without saying it, maybe they were never that talented to begin with.