Kendrick Lamar Is Facing Some Backlash For Using the "E Word" on His New Album

Few rappers have emerged from feuds looking better than Kendrick Lamar, who appears to have fundamentally altered the trajectory of Drake's career with a single song. Kendrick is also riding high off the release of his latest album, "GNX," but some people are calling attention to one track on the album which contains a racial slur.

The slur is not widely used, but there have been conversations online about the fact that Kendrick used the E-word in his song "wacced out murals." Here's what we know both about what the E-word means and about why Kendrick has faced backlash for using it.

The E-word that Kendrick uses in the song is "Eskimo," which many indigenous Inuit people view as a slur. Because their opinion is really the only one that matters, people are calling Kendrick out for using the term, although many are acknowledging that he may not have known that it was offensive to the Inuit people. As a result, they are using the moment to teach those who don't know about why the word is offensive.

According to Oceanwide Expeditions, the Inuit people prefer to be called Inuk or Inuit (Inuk is singular, Inuit plur), and don't like the term "Eskimo" because it is not one that originated with their people.

"Instead, it is believed that either the French or Danish first coined the phrase Eskimo, and it apparently meant either 'snow-shoe netter' or 'meat eater.' Either way, the majority of modern Inuit people view the word Eskimo as a racial slur," the site explains.

While there has been some anger at the suggestion that those who point out that the word is a slur are trying to cancel Kendrick, most people who are pointing it out are just saying that everyone should stop using the word moving forward.

"I've seen boomers and Gen X be the most upset about the accountability being held as if we’re trying to cancel Kendrick … We are just saying don't use the word puh-lease," one person wrote on TikTok.

"Most people don’t know. Most people don’t know Alaskan Native/ First Nations people. I am Yup’ik, not an Eskimo. It’s OK to not know. When you do know, it’s OK to change your mind. It’s growth," another person added.

Kendrick is not being canceled over this issue, but many are hopeful that they can gently nudge him toward not using the word in the future.

Like the N-word and so many other slurs, the E-word has a history of colonialism and domination. It's a word that colonizers imposed on the people they were colonizing, and it's completely understandable that those who were being colonized don't have any particular fondness for the word or its sinister origin. You might not have known that about it, but now you do. It's not like it's a word that comes up all the time anyway.