N-word Pass

About

N-word Pass refers to jokes about a satirical permit which grants the owner the ability to say the "n-word."

Origin

The idea of the N-word Pass is related to the "N Word Privileges" trope, which has a long history in pop culture as cataloged on the TV Tropes^[5] database. On June 13th, 2012, a listcle titled "Top 4 White People That Get The 'N-Word' Pass" was published on the hip-hop news site Hot97.^[6]

Spread

On June 5th, 2018, Urban Dictionary^[2] user DefiningJusticeFromAssholes submitted an entry for "N-Word Pass," defining it as "an unwritten pass that allows you to say the n-word ONCE!" (shown below).

On November 12th, YouTuber Nass is Secretly a Pikmin uploaded a video a titled "The Penguins of Madagascar: Operation N-W.O.R.D.", in which Barack Obama grants an "n-word pass" (shown below).

On January 17th, 2019, Redditor lilbushplane submitted a photoshopped image featuring photographs of Barack Obama with the caption "The N-Word Pass" to /r/PewDiePieSubmissions^[4] (shown below). Within one month, the post garnered more than 5,000 points (95% upvoted) and 60 comments.

The following day, Redditor WinstonIsHarambe submitted a post titled "How to get N-Word Pass 2019 100% Works" to the /r/copypasta^[3] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 6,200 points (94% upvoted) and 170 comments within 28 days.

Maryland High School Passes

On February 13th, 2019, the @TheScoop_US Twitter feed posted a video about students who were handing out "N-word passes" at the Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland (shown below).

That day, the webcomic Martian Magazine^[1] uploaded a comic in which a boy discovers an "N-word Pass" inside a Wonka chocolate bar (shown below).

Search Interest

External References