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Barry Bonds #25 of the Miami Marlins looks on during a game against the Atlanta Braves at Marlins Park on April 15, 2016 in Miami, Florida. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
3 min read

Barry Bonds

is not here for teenagers rapping the N-word

Clinton Yates @clintonyates

Up Next From Culture

    5:37 PM

    Barry Bonds has been a controversial figure throughout his baseball career, but now he’s taking a stand against the school his daughter attends in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The best hitter in MLB history wants the students in the video suspended. A group called Brentwood Students Against Racism (BSAR) has posted a petition on Change.org that had reached 600 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.

    “A group of almost exclusively white students had a party on a boat and decided to sing the n-word multiple times,” the petition reads. “Brentwood has done nothing other than offer to “talk to them” If these kids weren’t in their socioeconomic position, of their racial heritage, or considered ‘assets’ to the community (based on social status and/or their parents wealth), consequences would be different. Brentwood claims to value diversity and acceptance, but their lack of action demonstrates otherwise. This is just another example of their white favoritism.”

    The video depicting kids singing the ASAP Ferg song “Dump Dump.” Bonds’ ex-wife, Elizabeth Bonds, also checked in on the matter regarding where her daughter attends. “Is this what $40k worth of private education gets you? I am extremely embarrassed that my daughter is a current junior at this school and has been here since kindergarten,” she wrote. “I can’t even speak. I blame the parents of these children. SMH.”

    The issue of white kids/people using the N-word in music is not a new dispute in the world of hip-hop, but certainly an evolving one. If you’ve been to a concert in the last 10 years, you’ve heard it happen. The line of demarcation is somewhat generational. Ja Rule, who hasn’t made a song of consequence in forever, thinks that we’re just going to have to live with a world in which this is the case. But Rich Homie Quan says he enjoys it when his white fans say the word, as it demonstrates a higher crossover appeal.

    Travis Scott went so far as to basically force a fan to say it as part of a lyric, and then said it was an emotionally positive experience for him personally.

    If you’re going to freak out every time you see a college kid in black face or hear a high-schooler drop an N-bomb, you’d probably never make it out of bed. But you do have to wonder if the vitriol around the most electric word in the English language for Americans will ever truly be removed from its usage. Perhaps more intriguingly is the notion that hip-hop would be the vehicle through which that happened. Are we that woke as a society yet?

    In California, it doesn’t appear so. BSAR declined to comment on the story, citing concerns about potential backlash or legal action against them.

    Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.