A photo of two white Virginia high school students wearing t-shirts bearing the n-word was widely shared on Twitter on Thursday, sparking outrage and prompting debate over the use of the term in pop culture.
The photo shows two blonde girls with their backs to the camera, wearing shirts that say "N16GA We Made It," substituting two letters in the racial slur with their class year. The phrase is from the chorus of Drake's "We Made It."
The girls are students at Mountain View High School in Stafford, Virginia, The New York Daily News reports. After Daily News reporter Shaun King tweeted the photo, Twitter users debated whether using the term while quoting pop lyrics is acceptable.
A representative from Stafford County Public Schools confirmed to NTRSCTN that the two girls in the photo are Mountain View High School students, though she had no other information about the identity of the students or the context of the photo.
A statement sent to NTRSCTN from the school district addressed the use of the racial slur on the shirts.
Along with a request for "community members who have posted or shared this insensitive picture on any social media platform to please remove it," the statement also included a note from Mountain View High School's principal, Dr. James Stemple, on how the school intends to address the matter.
