WATCH: Ice Cube Put Bill Maher In His Place For Saying The ‘N-Word’

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Last week on HBO’s Real Time talk show, host Bill Maher let the ‘n-word’ slip out his mouth. Not only that, but he said this word as he concluded a slavery pun about working the fields of Nebraska.

Famed rapper Ice Cube showed up on Real Time to put big bad Bill in his place. To Cube, Maher calling himself a ‘house n*gga’ is liking sticking a knife in every black viewer who hears this term as venom. It may exist within a certain lexicon conveying an alternative meaning, but Maher doesn’t and shouldn’t have access to the word. As in Cube’s words, no matter what a white person may mean by saying the “n-word,” the result is always venomous because of the oppressive history and roots surrounding the word and its usage.

Maher apologized for saying the ‘n-word’ on last week’s show. The comedian said that he “used (the word) in the banter of a live moment.”

Ice Cube enjoys Real Time. But he most certainly did not enjoy Maher slipping a racial slur last week. “I love your show, you’ve got a great show,” said Ice Cube. “But you be bucking up against that line a little bit. You know, you’ve got a lot of black jokes.”

“Against racists,” Maher said, trying to gain a measure of leverage.

“Sometimes you sound like a redneck trucker,” responded Ice Cube.

“It was wrong, and I apologized. More than that, I can’t do,” said Maher.

Ice Cube accepted Maher’s apology, but still felt that his verbal actions last week were reprehensible.

“I still think you need to get to the root of the psyche because I think there’s a lot of guys out there who cross the line because they’re a little too familiar, or they think they’re too familiar. Or, it’s guys that, you know, might have a black girlfriend or two that made them some Kool-Aid every now and then, and then they think they can cross the line. And they can’t. You know, it’s a word that has been used against us. It’s like a knife, man. You can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It’s when you use it as a weapon against us, by white people. And we’re not going to let that happen again by nobody because it’s not cool. Now, I know you heard, it’s in the lexicon and everybody’s talking, but that’s our word now. That’s our word now, and you can’t have it back.”

Cube then explained why it’s fine for black people to say the word, but not white people. “It’s not cool because when I hear my homie say it, it don’t feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it feel like that knife stabbing you, even if they don’t mean it.”

“I think this is a teachable moment, not just to you but to the people who are watching right now,” said Ice Cube.

“I think the people who are watching right now are saying: that point has been made,” said an annoyed Maher.

“Not by me,” replied Ice Cube.

The former press secretary to Bernie Sanders even commented on the conversation. Symone Sanders said,

“As a white person in America, you would’ve been the master, the slave owner… It was mostly black women who were enslaved in the house, who were raped, who were beaten daily, day in and day out. They endured physical and mental abuse. For a lot of people in America, that was like slap in the face to black America, particularly to black women.”

Tommy Christopher completely agrees with Cube and thinks Maher should shut up and listen.

Quite a few people on Twitter praised Ice Cube “telling it how it is” to Bill Maher. To others, Cube just came to collect…

For this guy, Cube is just trying to make late night’s more comfortable…

Bill better watch his words! Stay kosher, boychik!

Symone Sanders is getting a shout out from social media, too…

That girl’s words = power

Alright, alright, alright. Let’s get to Cube showing Maher’s whose boss. By the way, just watched Straight Outta Compton. Loved it. Now, let’s see what Cube has to say this time…

Will Bill Maher ever learn? Does explicitly instructing someone not to do something work? Or will it just incur a trend of reverse psychology? Bill does buck the system often, regarding social structures/norms, whatever…but I think he’s going to sit out on this one and just listen.