Since video showing members of a University of Oklahoma fraternity chanting the N-word went viral Sunday night, CNN has aired several segments about whether it’s acceptable for anyone, regardless of race, to use the slur.
Amid that debate, the network decided Tuesday night to air the uncensored video in addition to an uncensored Vine clip that allegedly shows the Sigma Alpha Epsilon frat house “mom” singing along to a rap song that repeatedly used the word in its lyrics.
“We believe it is important that you actually hear exactly what is being said so that the word is not sanitized to make it more palatable,” CNN host Don Lemon said.
Viewers first noticed Lemon using the N-word during Monday’s “CNN Tonight,” where he interviewed OU football linebacker Eric Striker about his reaction to the video. During that segment, CNN aired a bleeped-out version of the viral video.
“They didn’t say N-word. The word they were saying was nigger,” Lemon said. “They said ‘We’ll never have a nigger in SAE.’ That’s what they were saying.”
Wait, what did I hear @DonLemon say about the n-word on @CNNTonight just now?#oklahoma #SAE #OU
— Muneerah (@muneerahb) March 10, 2015
CNN @donlemon all the way live tonight w the gratuitous use of the n word #SEA #OklahomaSAE
— Dondi West (@dondiwest) March 10, 2015
.@donlemon just said the n-word live on @CNN re the racist #OUSAE video — he’s speaking w/ student athlete Eric Striker
— Emily Martinez (@martinez_emily) March 10, 2015
Lemon used the word again Tuesday while discussing Beauton Gilbow, the fraternity’s house “mom.”
Guest Ben Ferguson, who is white, argued that the word “should be dead” and that people must refrain from using it in both everyday speech and rap music. Another panelist, Marc Lamont Hill, took issue with that line of thinking.
“This train is never late,” Hill, who is black, said. “Whenever a white person calls a black person ‘nigger,’ we find some moment to blame it on rap music or on black people.”
“Marc, in all fairness she’s not calling black people niggers,” Lemon cut in. “She’s repeating the lyrics of a song.”
Watch Tuesday’s segment below:
