Fried Chicken & Black Panthers

You know when I heard that the conservative right was up in arms over the invitation extended to rapper Common to attend a White house Celebration of the Arts earlier this week I considered the source and thought I’d move on. I mean they act like the First lady invited a bunch of gangsta rappers who were gonna show up with saggin’ pants, bandanas, throwing up gang signs and grabbing their crotches. Really, as far as rappers go, you couldn’t get much safer than Common without extending an invite to Will Smith. At any rate he’s certainly not the “vile rapper” described by Fox News, come on last year the man starred opposite Queen Latifah in a romantic comedy or fantasy or whatever it was because really how believable was that one but we’ll save that for another debate. Anyway, this is the same Fox News who just six months ago was praising Common and saying he is a role model for kids. Of course Sarah Palin “selectively quoted” two lines from one of Common’s poems directed at former President Bush where he said “burn a Bush for peace”…wow somebody call the radical police. In the same poem Common also says “tell the law, my Uzi weighs a ton.” By the way am I the only one who remembers when NWA rapper Easy E, who wrote violent lyrics against police as a hobby, was invited to a White House event hosted by the first President Bush? And yes, he did show up in saggin’ pants! Anyway, it’s called conscience rap Sarah, something you obviously don’t possess. I swear just when I think I couldn’t possibly hate her more she opens up her mouth and speaks. She also said the invitation was “lacking in class and decency.” (sighs heavily) Seriously, when does this woman’s 15 minutes end?

But then folks they really crossed the line. They went after my beloved Jill. Yes Jill Scott!! You know Jill who wanted to take a long walk around the block and spark some conversation verbal elation and stimulation… yeah her! The first Lady invited Ms. Scott to attend and read poetry as well. Now she’s being called a racist because of comments she made in an Essence Magazine article in which she expressed the subconscious discomfort she feels when seeing a Black man dating a white woman. Every conservative media outlet in the country immediately accused her of being racist and trotted out the old reliable, “now if a white person had said that”. First of all, who even knew bigots read Essence? Secondly, what they failed to do of course was to quote Ms. Scott fully. She also stated that she has internal conflict with her views on interracial dating as “I was raised to view everyone as equal, despite the color of their skin.” Not a single article I read from any of the right wing outlets included this quote. Racist, I think not. She simply expressed a heartfelt and honest opinion which she herself finds contradictory.

It all comes down to the conservatives attempts to scare White America into thinking that now that we have a Black President he wants to subvert the country and the White House. They would have you believe there’s a Black Panther rally going on in the White House every night along with watermelon, fried chicken and Olde English 800. Seriously, neither of these two invitees would be described as radical by anyone other than a rightwing nut. I don’t recall anybody checking the guest list for any of the Bush Soirees. I mean they certainly wouldn’t invite anyone who wrote fanatical lyrics like "early one mornin' while makin' the rounds, I took a shot of cocaine and I shot my woman down", no sir those lyrics were written by Mr. Johnny Cash…oh wait, wasn’t he personally honored by President George W. Bush at the White House? And didn’t I read somewhere that the Bush’s claim to be big fans of Bob Marley? But I guess that’s ok because even though he shot the sheriff he did not shoot the deputy.