Boyz II Men Singer Receives Backlash For Defending Gina Rodriguez's N-Bomb

The "Can You Say The N-Word if It's in a Song?" debate rages on. Jane The Virgin actress Gina Rodriguez found herself in hot water after she shared a video of herself in a makeup chair while listening to The Fugees favorite, "Ready or Not." She sang along to the lyrics, "Frontin' n*ggas give me heebie-jeebies," and the brief moment was enough to ignite backlash. After being harshly criticized on multiple social media platforms, Gina offered an apology to the public, stating that she is a fan of The Fugees and Lauryn Hill and didn't mean to use the word offensively.

"I feel so deeply protective and responsible to the community of color, but I have let this community down," she wrote. "I have some serious learning and growing to do and I am so deeply sorry for the pain I have caused." Gina even offered up a second apology on Wednesday in hopes of quelling much of the controversy.

However, the conversation was brought back to the forefront after a TMZ cameraman caught up with Boyz II Men singer Shawn Stockman and asked for his thoughts on Gina's usage of the n-word. "Here's my thing. She was singing a song, and if you're gonna sing a song, make sure that you censor yourself. We can all censor ourselves," he said. "But as far as I'm concerned, she's Latina, right? Latina are black. A lot of people don't want to acknowledge it." The cameraman told Shawn that Gina's ethnic background is Puerto Rican. "She's black!"

"She's from Puerto Rico? Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Mexicans, believe it or not, they all...we all here," he said, rubbing on his skin to emphasize the color. "Just look at the history." Shawn said that Gina gets a pass for saying the n-word because "if you go to Puerto Rico there are people [my shade] right now." Social media users, particularly on Twitter, didn't hesitate to share their thoughts, so check out a few mixed reactions from Shawn's recent remarks as well as his TMZ interview below.