Shawn Stockman is giving Gina Rodriguez a pass for singing the n-word ... he says it's totally fine because her parents are Puerto Rican, and Latinos are black.
We got the Boyz II Men singer Wednesday at LAX and asked him to weigh-in on the backlash Gina's getting after saying "n***a" while singing along to the Fugees on social media.
Shawn says he's not offended by Gina's use of the word, and he goes one step further ... saying people of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican and Mexican descent can say "n***a" because they're all different shades of black.
Gina quickly apologized after her social media post went viral, saying sorry for offending anyone and explaining her connection to Lauryn Hill and the Fugees. But, Shawn thinks Gina has absolutely nothing to apologize for.
Shawn's letting Gina off the hook for this one ... but he tells us the one thing she should change the next time she's singing along to music.