Dutch fashion magazine "Jackie" has issued an apology for using a ridiculously offensive racial slur in its coverage of pop star Rihanna. In a feature that was supposed to show readers how to adapt the singer’s style in the Netherlands, the magazine called Rihanna "the ultimate nigger bitch." Here’s a translated excerpt from the article:
Rihanna, the good girl gone bad, is the ultimate niggabitch and displays that gladly, and for her that means: what’s on can come off. If that means she’ll be on stage half naked, then so be it. But Dutch winters aren’t like Jamaican ones, so pick a clothing style in which your daughter can resist minus ten.
The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Eva Hoeke, then took to Facebook to offer up an apology:
We are of course very fed up over this and especially very shocked. However I’m glad that we’re engaging in a dialogue on this page — not everybody does that," Hoeke said in a translated response. "Thanks for this. Other than that I can be brief about this: this should have never happened. Period. While the author meant no harm — the title of the article was intended as a joke — it was a bad joke, to say the least. And that slipped through my, the editor-in-chief’s, fingers. Stupid, painful and sucks for all concerned. The author has been addressed on it, and now I can only ensure that these terms will no longer end up in the magazine.
Here’s our own Gender Matters columnist, Akiba Solomon, on the whole mess:
These words: "She’s got street cred, a ghetto ass and a golden throat. Rihanna, the good girl gone bad, is the ultimate nigga-bitch and happy to show it," sound like a description for a porno or a Blaxploitation flick from the early 70s. The editor claims this is street language. If this is how people go around talking in The Netherlands (the land of Santa’s blackface assistant, Black Pete), they have serious cognitive problems. The biggest "nigga" appropriators here know better than to add "bitch." That’s how you go from wannabe cool to "slave auction."