“I’m White”: Did Jen The Pen Go Too Far Or Was She Just Stating The Obvious?

Last night on  Love And Hip Hop New York , a heated conversation between former radio personalities, Jen the Pen and Raqi Thunda turned racial when Jen screamed,  “I’m White, I’ll get it done,” to Raqi after the two decided to abort plans for a joint radio show. The social media world was in an uproar after Jen dropped the “W” word, but are we overreacting?

If you watched the show, especially that segment, you would’ve heard Raqi mention frequently that Jen was going to be the “White girl” who balanced her out. She was going to be the “White girl” who could say what she wanted on the show. Raqi said “White girl” so much that it made her teeth whiter. She made it clear from the jump that the only reason that she was interested in doing anything with Jen was because her reputation in radio was better than hers and that she was White. So why are we shocked that after being told how great she was for being White, that this White girl would in turn remind Raqi about the privilege of having White skin.

I think if anything, hearing somebody say out loud,  ““I’m White, I’ll get it done” like Jen did was a shock to a nation who’s used to hearing it the other way around. We’d cheer if you heard an African-American, Latino, Asian woman announce that “I’m (fill in the blank), I’ll get it done.” Something like that would’ve been a trending topic, followed by a bunch of congratulatory tweets from random people. It was hearing “I’m White, I’ll get it done,” from a White girl who made everybody cringe.

Not coming to her defense, but I am going to offer an objective opinion. Minorities need to get tough. At the end of the day, she didn’t say anything derogatory or disrespectful to any other race. Matter of fact, I don’t think she said anything that was even out of line or not true. She stated the obvious. She stated something that my basketball coach told me years ago. That a White man can grow his beard out to look like Paul Bunyan and have tattoos covering his neck, but all he’d have to do it shave his beard and put on a smile and he’d get a job before I did. It’s a fact of life and like most facts of life, we don’t like to hear it out loud. But just because we don’t want to know the truth, doesn’t stop it from being true. I don’t think Jen was out-of-pocket with what she said, I think that we as people need to understand her sentiments and move on.

What are your thoughts on Jen’s comment? Out of pocket? Or stating the facts? Leave a comment and let us know. Check out more moments from Episode 5 here.