Twitter has been in an uproar since Jane the Virgin star, Gina Rodriguez, made headlines (yes, again) for recording and posting herself singing the n-word on her social media platforms.

I can only imagine the frenzy her PR team is going through trying to fix and cover up yet another Gina mishap.

To make matters worse, Rodriguez decided to put a bandaid over a bullet wound and apologize to the “communities of color” that she offended by offering the infamous “I am sorry if I offended you” spiel while remaining deliberately obtuse.

I can only hope that her PR team gets the raise that they deserve for this.

Rodriguez, her words and her actions come as no surprise for me. The reactions made after the video was posted also came as no surprise. Again, Black people have to come to their own defense when it comes to the n-word.

We have to constantly remind non-black people of the word’s history and how it was reclaimed, and honestly, wasting energy by beating a dead horse. This example sheds light on an increasingly large problem in non-black communities; their own possessiveness on black culture and the n-word.

From hairstyles and hair texture, slang and African American Vernacular English with terms like “bae,” “lit”, and “sis” being used by corporate marketing, our culture is constantly being consumed and picked at. It is picked and prodded until the only thing left is our struggles – the leftovers.

Police brutality, mass incarceration, pipeline to prison, all the things that non-black people don’t want, everyone wants to be Black until it is time to be Black.

Out of every derogatory term, non-black people have this obsession over black culture and the n-word. Non-black people can even become upset and argumentative when told they cannot say the n-word, claiming that because they grew up around certain people, they lived in large black areas, or they feel more connected to black culture, they have a right to claim a term that never belonged to them.

Here’s a fun fact: your proximity to blackness does not make it okay to say the n-word.

Everyone understands cultural and contextual communication, until it’s the n-word. Just like if a stranger called your romantic partner “baby” as a term of endearment, it would be uncomfortable and even offensive because your partner and that stranger do not share the same relationship (we hope).

Just like women can refer to other women and their friends as “bitch” as a term of endearment, but if a strange man calls them that, it’s offensive. It’s context and community.

We use these words that have been reclaimed in our own spaces and communities and we respect these boundaries and spaces, except when it comes to the n-word.

The question in nonblack communities should not be “Why can’t I say it?”, but instead “Why do I want to say it?”, or “Why do I have this desire to not only say it, but defend my use of it?”

The use of the n-word in non-black communities is antiblack, and antiblackness is not just a white thing.

The root of racism is “How far away can you get from Blackness?” It is persistent in all communities and in order to become an ally to Black spaces, you have to unpack your white supremacy and antiblack rhetoric.

At the end of the day it is your First Amendment right, but remember: freedom of speech is not freedom of consequence. You have a right to say whatever you please, but just like the case of Gina Rodriguez, it is open to criticism, backlash, and in her case, cancellation.

If you are having trouble deciding on whether you can or should say it, here’s a tip; just don’t.