Louder with Crowder - Kevin Costner Uses "N Word" || Louder With Crowder
Aired: 2015-01-30
Duration: 05:40


=== The Point About Costner (03:50) ===

[00:00:02]  Let's run this clip of Kevin Costner because it was very surprising to me.
[00:00:06]  I hate to be one of those guys who ever latches on to a celebrity and says, he's a conservative.
[00:00:11]  But I think you'll like what Kevin Costner had to say on CNN about Ferguson and about race relations in America.
[00:00:17]  Fun dip.
[00:00:18]  Roll clip, please.
[00:00:19]  Well, it's not that I got there.
[00:00:21]  I mean, I grew up in a place called Compton.
[00:00:24]  When I say I grew up, that's a loose term.
[00:00:25]  I was there for the first eight years of my life.
[00:00:29]  So my extended family, my immediate family, I was very conscious of these words.
[00:00:36]  I don't ever remember them being said in anger.
[00:00:38]  I don't ever remember them being said.
[00:00:39]  But it doesn't mean they weren't arrogant.
[00:00:41]  It doesn't mean they weren't callous.
[00:00:43]  They weren't ignorant, if you will.
[00:00:46]  People's feelings.
[00:00:48]  So I saw it.
[00:00:49]  I used those words.
[00:00:50]  You've said the N-word?
[00:00:52]  Sure.
[00:00:53]  Multiple times.
[00:00:54]  You have said, anytime someone wants to shut a conversation down, you just invoke race.
[00:01:00]  It's not the only way you do it, but when you want to shut a conversation down, you also can walk away.
[00:01:09]  So, I think there's so much going on there that people will miss.
[00:01:13]  When he says, when Kevin Costner says, sure, I've used the N-word many times in my life, and it was when I was playing with other black athletes, and maybe a majority of Americans have never said it.
[00:01:23]  What he's saying is, screw you.
[00:01:26]  What he's saying is, screw you for trying to judge me on having ever used one word.
[00:01:34]  Because every single person in this country at some point, with the exception of, and I mean single-digit numbers, has said the N-word.
[00:01:43]  Everyone from my generation.
[00:01:45]  Anytime I sing along to hip-hop radio, which, by the way, I listen to a lot.
[00:01:48]  I know it surprises people.
[00:01:50]  Kanye...
[00:01:50]  You do not look like a hip-hop fan.
[00:01:53]  I don't look like a hip-hop fan.
[00:01:55]  You look like a Maple Leafs fan.
[00:01:58]  Kanye's College Dropout is one of my favorite albums.
[00:02:02]  Weird Science is another band I really love.
[00:02:04]  I love Kid Cudi.
[00:02:06]  I love hip-hop, okay?
[00:02:08]  So, to give you an idea, the deposition with Paula Deen, remember that?
[00:02:15]  Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:02:16]  She was a baker or whatever?
[00:02:18]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:02:19]  Cook?
[00:02:19]  Chubby baker looked like Ursula from Little Mermaid.
[00:02:22]  That one.
[00:02:23]  She does.
[00:02:26]  She does.
[00:02:27]  She was asked, have you ever used the N-word?
[00:02:30]  That was the really big question, and she said yes.
[00:02:33]  And there were other things that went on, but she said yes.
[00:02:36]  Okay, Fundip, I want you to ask me, Stephen Crowder, if I've ever used the N-word.
[00:02:41]  Stephen Crowder, have you ever used the N-word?
[00:02:45]  Every single time I sing along to College Dropout, Kanye's arguably best album.
[00:02:53]  Every single time if I'm in my car.
[00:02:56]  I don't self-censor if I'm in my car singing along to a hip-hop artist because I know somewhere down the line someone can accuse me of being a racist.
[00:03:07]  Fundip, be honest.
[00:03:08]  At some point in your life, you've said that word at least once.
[00:03:11]  I'm Pat Martin's son, aren't I? But the point that Kevin Costner is making is you can't judge someone by one word without any kind of context.
[00:03:26]  Anyone in this country who wants to crucify someone for having...
[00:03:30]  By the way, if you go out there and you actually use the N-word in its proper racist context, kind of like Joe Biden did with Shylocks and the Jews...

=== Bob Evans Incident (02:01) ===

[00:03:38]  I about fainted when I heard that.
[00:03:40]  He didn't even pause.
[00:03:41]  He just kept going right on through like it was just part of the everyday vernacular for Joe Biden.
[00:03:47]  I think it is.
[00:03:48]  I think it is.
[00:03:50]  I shouldn't say I don't doubt.
[00:03:53]  I wouldn't doubt Joe Biden being an actual anti-Semite.
[00:03:58]  But If you use the N-word in its proper racist context, yeah, that's a terrible thing.
[00:04:05]  It's a word that shouldn't be used, right?
[00:04:07]  I think that remembering the early 70s, where I first heard it most commonly used, was in the little...
[00:04:17]  It was almost like a nursery rhyme.
[00:04:18]  The kids would run around the neighborhood.
[00:04:19]  Daniel Boone was a man.
[00:04:21]  He was a big man.
[00:04:22]  But the bear was bigger, and so forth.
[00:04:25]  So he ran like up a tree.
[00:04:27]  And I had no idea at the time.
[00:04:31]  What it even meant.
[00:04:32]  What it was.
[00:04:33]  All I knew it was in that little song.
[00:04:36]  Yeah.
[00:04:36]  I'm like, what is that thing?
[00:04:39]  That's not a thing.
[00:04:40]  That's a person.
[00:04:40]  And I'm like, oh.
[00:04:41]  Right.
[00:04:42]  Let me tell you this.
[00:04:43]  I don't know how much time we have until the break, but we got a few minutes.
[00:04:48]  Okay, we got two minutes.
[00:04:50]  Yeah, by the way, everyone can see you, so these signals are no longer covert, so keep them clean.
[00:04:57]  Don't keep them.
[00:04:57]  It's the internet.
[00:04:58]  No one cares.
[00:04:59]  Hi, everybody.
[00:05:00]  Okay.
[00:05:00]  Okay.
[00:05:03]  I remember when I heard the N-word actually used.
[00:05:06]  In a racist way.
[00:05:07]  So I'm not talking about someone's, you know, she ain't messing with no broke.
[00:05:12]  I'm not talking about singing along to some song.
[00:05:14]  I'm talking about a guy using it where he was at a Bob Evans.
[00:05:17]  I was at a Bob Evans in Lynchburg, Virginia.
[00:05:19]  And he sat down and he said, you know, these filthy N-word.
[00:05:23]  And I remember my heart about stopped.
[00:05:25]  I couldn't believe that I had heard someone use that in that way.
[00:05:29]  And it made me realize just how rare it is.
[00:05:32]  It made me realize just how rare actual hardcore racism is.
[00:05:38]  We'll talk about it after the break.