CNN was a little embarrassed after accidentally playing a rap song with the N-word in it. The gaffe was part of a segment about a 103-year-old woman, Gladys Flamer, who still drives herself around and lives alone in Coatsville, Pa.

Flamer's story was inspiring for viewers, but ended up being a bit awkward for CNN. Toward the end of the segment, CNN started to play the song 'Fantastic Voyage' by the rapper Coolio and didn't seem to remember that they should have looked for the clean version first.



CNN immediately noticed the error and snapped the video off the screen faster than you can say, "Which producer do we fire next?" The host, noticing the mistake, also issued an immediate apology to the audience.

Here are some thoughts about CNN airing the N-word. They called me today about an appearance next week, so perhaps I should be relatively nice.

1) This was an easy mistake. I hope the producer who made the mistake doesn't get fired. Music like this is everywhere and it's hard to avoid it.

2) Whites are probably more offended by the mistake than many African-Americans. For some people, any reference to the N-word or any variant of it (even "Negro") draws an instant, decisive and negative reaction. The hurdles for black people in America are not just the words people use to describe us. The real culprits in America are systematic and subtle racism. This does not mean that many African-Americans would not be offended by this song, but I honestly think that the sensitivity of the issue would cause CNN to avoid it altogether.

3) While there are certainly better words to use, I am also empathetic to the idea that the context and variant of the word makes a very real difference. I've heard black men use the variation ending with the letter "a" as a term of endearment, while an old white man from Texas using the variation ending with the letter "r" is troubling for most people. While it might seen hypocritical and contradictory to define the word differently in different contexts and to distinguish one variant from another, the truth is that this is human nature. For example, in China, the word "ma" can have a multitude of meanings depending on when you say it, who says it and how it is pronounced. If a simple two-letter word can be defined in so many ways, then I am sure that a word as storied and complex as the N-word can be just as interesting.

No matter what you think about the N-word (or any variation of it), I think that most of us can agree on the following: There are better words that we can use to greet one another, and CNN should stay away from it completely. They've apologized and it's over, but you couldn't help but laugh at the error.



Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book 'Black American Money.' To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.