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Politics : The Bigot Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (301)	11/20/2004 7:14:04 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 740

It is unfortunate that no one commented- but at least you noticed it. Partly, perhaps, we can explain the lack of comment due to the age of people who hang out on SI, and the lack of minorities- I don't think this is a very multi-ethnic site- do you?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (301)	11/20/2004 8:29:39 PM
From: Alan Smithee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 740

Particularly noteworthy is that this appeared on a thread which is explicitly limited to "professional" commentary. Yet, it received no criticism even for lack of "professionalism", let alone banning (by a thread head who routinely bans people). Actually, I found this post particularly noteworthy. What is interesting is that Captain Jack never mentions anything about the race of the people who are making rap music. I happen to disagree with Captain Jack on the artistic merit of rap (and I am a 41 yo white guy), but there was nothing bigoted in his response. Just his opinion. However, by the poster assuming that all rap is made by blacks, he has proven that he is the bigot, as well as the threadhead who agreed with him. Other white rappers include the Beastie Boys (who have been around since 1981), Blondie with "Rapture", Eminem and even more mainstream contemporary "rock" bands such as Linkin Park have rap as a key component to their music. And let's not forget that there are latino rappers such as Cypress Hill. So by assuming that Captain Jack was giving a racially oriented opinion, the bigot critics have proven themselves to be bigots. Message 20787336 There was discussion the other day on that thread dealing with the topic of liberal racism. You won't see any meaningful discussion of racism among the ranks of liberals in the MSM, but it exists, and is quite pervasive, IMO. BWDIK?

To: Thomas M. who wrote (301)	11/20/2004 10:58:10 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 740

Actually, I DO have a problem with gansta rap- the kind mentioned in the article. I've given rap music a real try, and come to appreciate some of it, but I hope we can still, at the end of the day, say that singing about "raping bitches" and killing cops is not very healthy for anyone, or for any community- not the gangsta rappers, and their communities (black white or purple) or the little suburban kids who like to listen to it because it is "naughty". And perhaps, even though the people who brought this issue up were very rude, and one wouldn't want to try to talk to them, perhaps we should, by ourselves, think about the issue. After all, if I said jazz sucks, would I necessarily be racist? I might just have a very poor appreciation of music. I know it's more iffy when it comes to rap, since rap is (despite the rainbow coalition of rappers brought to our attention so kindly by our guests) essentially identified with the black community- and since rap is more recent we KNOW which community it is identified with. Most people don't think about the roots of jazz anymore. Of course at the time of its birth jazz was considered very nasty (my grandmother, born in 1896, always identified it with whores and whorehouses), and very ascociated with blacks, and low culture (as defined by the society at the time, not by me)- but people forget that, and the racist view the society had about jazz. This would be a very interesting issue to discuss and think about, but SI probably isn't the place to have a really good discussion about it. Alas, it really isn't a place for much of anything now, but slinging the old mud ball. Oh well.