By Stephfon Guidry

Sticks and stones may break our bones but words can hurt your credibility and consumer sales, as Dutch magazine Jackie is finding out. Jackie magazine decided it was a compliment or maybe just a shocking comment to label international recording Superstar, Rihanna, the “the good girl gone bad is the ultimate n****bitch!” Such a brazenly racist and offensive statement seems out of touch with the progressive times of political correctness, tolerance, and equality.

Jackie, a Dutch fashion magazine, features a section on how to copy & paste a celebrity signature style. Shocking statements focusing on the cutting edge style of Barbados-born beauty, Rihanna from Jackie states: “She has street cred, she has a ghetto ass and she has a golden throat. Rihanna, the good girl gone bad, is the ultimate n***abitch and she displays that gladly–for her that means what’s on can come off.” (HuffiningtonPost.com) Using strong language like “ghetto” and lude remarks about her throat served as a double edged sword to the magazine as it hit stands and the internet.

The magazines editor-in-chief, Eva Hoekes, issued a public apology and then her letter of immediate resignation from the publication from the resulting backlash. Eva Hoeke gave a very PC unapologetic apology to Parlour magazine saying, “I realize that my first reaction through Twitter, in which I indicated that it was a joke, has been an incomplete description of what me, and also the author of the article, meant. The term ‘niggabitch’ came from America and we solely used it to describe a style of dress”. Boldly the magazine publisher, Yves Gijrath, spoke candidly saying that there was nothing wrong with the statements made by the magazine and that the statement of apology only undermined the integrity of the former editor-in-chief.

Rihanna says “Talk That Talk” and therefore made her own comments about Jackie on twitter: “”I hope u can read English, because your magazine is a poor representation of the evolution of human rights! I find you disrespectful, and rather desperate!! You ran out of legit, civilized information to print! There are 1000′s of Dutch girls who would love to be recognized for their contributions to your country, you could have given them an article. Instead, u paid to print one degrading an entire race! That’s your contribution to this world! To encourage segregation, to mislead the future leaders to act in the past! You put two words together, with the intent of abasement, which made no sense…”N**** B****”?!….Well with all respect, on behalf of my race, here are my two words for you…F*** YOU!!!” (The Marquee Blog)