☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

To clarify: Lin used the N-word while reading an audiobook. He was reading a line spoken by his sufficiently black friend, who probably gave him permission to repeat it for the audiobook. I am not completely familiar with audiobook procedure, but I believe it involves reading the book aloud. All of it. As is. And while a word may be censored in the text, it’s hard to properly censor a word in an audiobook. Yes, the word could have been bleeped, but you don’t bleep in audiobooks (unless the text calls for it). 

General consensus seems to be that context is of the essence when using the N-word. Non-black person tossing it carelessly about in conversation? No. Academic paper, in academic context? Yes. Non-black person using it in a book/play/script? Every case is separate. For instance, while one might feel uncomfortable hearing Underground character Suzanna Macon use the word, it’s the right one to use, because an 18th century lady wouldn’t talk about her “African-American” slaves. South Park had an episode specifically about the N-word, and “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” was generally lauded, and the conversation at the end bears repeating:

Stan: “Wait a minute. That’s it. I don’t get it.”

Kyle: “Huh?”

Stan: “Don’t you see, Kyle? I don’t get it! Token, I get it now. I don’t get it. I’ve been trying to say that I understand how you feel, but I’ll never understand. I’ll never really get how it feels for a black person to have somebody use the “N” word. I don’t get it.”

Token: “Now you get it, Stan.”

Stan: “Yeah, I totally don’t get it.”

Token: “Thanks, dude.”

I definitely learned something that day.

tl;dr: Use of the N-bomb depends heavily on context, and IMO this case is acceptable. If other people disagree, then they are welcome to. Nobody should be afraid to have an opinion.

 And the word was censored in the text but they couldn’t do it in the audiobook ? Really ? Yes, it would have been easy to bleep it or just say “the n word”, and the text did call for it. 

Again, this is a slur. A slap in the face for most of us black fans (or ex-fans) of Hamilton. This non black artist, who has been in the spotlight, whose work has been called revolutionary, who has a huge platform is using an antiblack slur on an audiobook that’s going to be widely distributed. 

So maybe Daveed is okay with that. That’s one black man. What about the rest of us ? Even if it’s not deliberate, it sets an example that justify the use of the n word by non black people and is just a big fuck you to black people.

Your third paragraph perplexes me. It’s just not relevant to the situation at hand (and I might add that in most of the cases you described, the use of the word isn’t actually necessary. Why use a slur when it is not necessary ?). 

I’m neither the only nor the first black person (in the Hamilton fandom or otherwise) who has come forward and said they didn’t want this word used outside of slur reclaimation. And IMO what should prevail is what the people actually affected by the slur are saying, especially when they are calling out harmful behavior. But whatever thanks for lecturing a black slave descendant on that, I guess.

To answer your question, I know people messaged him via twitter. If you want to confont him about it go ahead. But Lin is a grown ass man who was raised in New York, he isn’t clueless (which makes what he did even more hurtful). 

Thank you for pointing that out. My angle clearly distracted me from that fact, and I hope you accept my apology. 

Why did you feel compelled to write an essay defending a non black person’s use of the n word ? I believe this is a valid question.

 Extremely valid question. I felt compelled to defend the usage of a word in an audiobook. As I mentioned to someone else, the word in question is rendered in the text as “n***a,” because that’s how the word is most commonly written (also, they wanted to offend as few people as possible). Only the most dense of readers would need help figuring out what the asterisks mean. “N[bleep]a” is more difficult to understand, and is also easier to confuse with the six-letter variant. Additionally, it would change the thought process of the listener: “listen listen listen wait what was that bleep oh that’s what it was I think listen listen.” It throws one off kilter, and interferes with flow and the intimacy that libretto notes provide, and which Lin intended.

Or maybe Lin did want a bleep, but was convinced otherwise. God knows.

So maybe Daveed is okay with that. That’s one black man. What about the rest of us ?

Another good point. I think a lot of this comes down to the fact that other groups have no equivalent of the N-word and so cannot and likely never will fully understand what it means. Results of this include someone’s decision to have Lin say “n***a.”

To answer your question, I know people messaged him via twitter. If you want to confont him about it go ahead. 

Thank you for informing me that people have messaged Lin about this mess–I have nothing to say to him; I simply wanted to know.

But Lin is a grown ass man who was raised in New York, he isn’t clueless 

But he probably does have the inherent cluelessness that non-black people have in regard to the N-word. This is not a defense, this is an acknowledgement of the fact that I’ve got a lot more research to do.

slaughter the idea that men are allowed to be gatekeepers for sex and have a duty or a right to “save women from themselves” when it comes to sex

This quote comes from his lecture “30 Essential Ideas You Should Know about ADHD,” which you can find on YouTube as a 27-video playlist. This part is specifically in the second video of that playlist (about 8 minutes in).