The “Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit” Dilemma for Barack

Hm… I think this post misses the mark. Wright and Ice Cube?? The comparison seems strained.
Jeralyn has a link up to a New York Magazine article on the race. It gives details about the conversations between Edwards and Hillary, Edwards and Obama.
Obama whiffed when he met Edwards, which is why he didn’t get the endorsement. He came across as an arrogant dumbshit, arguing with Elizabeth that his health care plan really was universal.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/3/29/20367/1798

Larry:

Ice T is on Law and Order, not Ice Cube

Thanks Larry..Interesting when YOu pull back the Curtain for..”Typical White People”..Who Cant understand the Lyrics..But Just hear the Beat of the 60,000 Amps in the car at the Curb..

Hmmm..I dont see any stretch between ICE CUBE..and Lyrics Like “FUCK AMERIKKKA..STILL WITH THE TRIPLE KKK.,.” and What Pastor Wright Screamed..

Wonder where ICE CUBE gets His ideas From…???

We grafted our oral tradition to the oppressor’s tongue to kick the English off the island. Just the same……

Milo to Hallenbeck in The Last Boy Scout

But just once, I would like to hear you scream in pain…

Hallenbeck to Milo

“Play some rap music.”

The 8 Mile movie of M&M’s was an insight. And why I say ‘313′ when talking about the south side of Chicago. When first learning of the residents being left with out heat and water, then following the whole corrupt arc that is Obama , scenes from that movie play out repeatedly in my mind.

I am waiting for the next youtube on this.

Damn Larry

let us know how you REALLY feel. LOL. And thanks. I’ve really had it with this whole Obama dream. It’s becoming a nightmare.

Hmmm. Most of the early gangsta rappers were protesting police brutality by the LAPD. They were also calling attention to the dire situation that many African-Americans were in at the time. Remember this was at the tail end of the Reagan-Bush I era when race relations were extremely tense. (Remember Rodney King?)

Wright is an older man today and Ice Cube was pretty young when he was a rapper. Did Ice Cube ever blame 9/11 on the US? Today, Ice Cube is in movies like “Are we there yet?” and “Barbershop”. I think there is something to say about maturing and viewing the world differently as one grows up.

I think the analogy works perfectly. Barry is a wanna be–he’s a poser on all fronts. He’s a poser presidential candidate working a manufactured black guy image. When it works for his purposes, he rolls out the ebonics and imitates Malcolm X.

Barry is a privileged guy, raised in a privileged home, went to private schools and then went looking for black culture. He has more melanin in his skin than most white people, but there are plenty of Semitic, East Asian and other ethnicities with at least as much if not more. But it’s that melanin (derived from his Harvard-educated Kenyan father) that has all the white liberals wetting themselves in excitement over him.

And people actually believe in and trust the friggin charlatan. It maddening.

The video is the real gem in this post. The Ice Cube/T stuff is okay intro (I initially thought you might have been BWD), but the video as analogy is hilarious. I can’t decide if I’d love or hate the Democratic convention being all 8 Mile this year. Certainly Hillary-as-Eminem is perfect. He really can’t say anything about her that we don’t already know. And Obama did go to Punahou, which is even funnier than Cranbook.

“Reminds me of what Hillary is doing to Barack.”

Lets just hope she gets it done!

The sound bite of the Reverend’s Wright’s sermon is accurate if you consider the posted comments. Is imagining one America too far for any of us to fathom? We have these inner feelings that we ascribe on blogs, et cetera, however our public personnas are vastly different. We then attack public personalities who may or may not feel the same way we truly do; however we aren’t adult enough to public state our positions or we aren’t able to withstand the backlash. It’s more commonly known as cowardice.

Down thread I made a similar analogy about Obama playing at being the black man — like the wannabe Indian acting like he grew up on the Rez. And then I read this by Larry Johnson:

Barack Obama has been trying portray himself as an authentic black man, when he has had a privileged lifestyle.

Someone like Obama, who went to Punahoe which is an elite-elite high school has absolutely no empathy for what the majority of people (regardless of race) must do to make a living — to survive. Just like Bush has no concept of what life is like for the vast majority of Americans.

You like Ice T? You know he was a pimp, right? (For those not properly clued in, pimps are essentially sexual slave-drivers.)
Eminem is a misogynist fartwit too.

I’d forgo the race-baiting and any use of any variation of the N word, btw. I say this as a adamant Hillary supporter. As a life-long champion of civil rights and racial equality, I think our candidate would strongly disapprove of that. One difference between HRC and OB is I’ve never heard HRC lob any racist slurs to discredit her opponent. I can’t say the same for OB on the subject of sexism.

And I do think Wright was correct on the subject of race. He was dead wrong that Hillary “fits the profile” and doesn’t know what it is to have to work twice as hard to be passed over for a (white male) C student however.

Flame me if you must.

Well it certainly is its own DIALECT I’ll say! Did anyone ever teach these gutter mouths to conjugate verbs? I think we need the granny brigade to come and wash their pieholes out with LYSOL. Yeah I really want anything resembling this mentality close to the White House.

Gangsta rap was dealing with a reality few in the media would address at the time.

Everyone saw the large violence and crime, few addressed many other issues underlying this if ever it would be dealt with effectively. Lack of racial,ethnic, and gender balance in the police force could erode the ability to have the confidence of certain communities that calls were made in.

Women helping answer domestic calls so the female involved has someone to confide some level with if need be, etc.

After a while the gangsta stuff became a parody of itself. In addition, it’s basically no different than Scarface or Godfather movies, and nobody is calling Scorcese or DiPalma out.

People in the know have seen metro PD clean out its ranks of whistle blowers the old school way. Cop on cop crime is unforgivable IMO but it happens on a regular basis in major cities. It will never be corrected, hard to drive investigations when the gatekeepers are expected to police themselves. Just take your 2 week’s pay and hit the same bars and gentleman’s clubs you police for trolls and DUIs. Most of the ‘West Coast’ gangs have assimilated the juvenille, probate, even prison guard capacities to an extent in big cities also.

The number one item tied that pairs crime is poverty. Gangsta rap has plenty of white fans in the stretches of poorer rural America as well. Many Red States lead the way in negative draws for service and subsidy assistance. It’s socioeconomic.

The real reason Larry is an Eminem fan is that he called GWB out before anyone else really would, and the entertainment industry blackballed him for it.

As for some of the language used in rap, I’m not too comfortable with it, but in some ways it has allowed people to reshape some of the words used negatively.

It’s still not something I’m a fan of hearing.

Mr. Murder…sounds like you have “BEEN There..DONE That..”

I agree with your Points..basically Amrica like every where else..has Many Cultures..and Sub cultures..deppending on what or Who You identify with or want to Associate yourself with..

The “Gangsta” Groups are One of them..Coming out of the “HOODS” Black..White..Latino..Asian..Indian they all have thier ..SIGNS…SONGS ..SIGNATURES ..STYLES..
SHIT.. Preferred Drugs (To Deal * Use)
Rackets..Gun Runners..

They all have excuses for What They do and Why they do it..There is alot of Anger..hate..distrust.violence..Crime.All Over the USA..Big Citys Have the BIG Problems..

The Prisons are full of them..So Are the Streets..

They will Listen to The Reverend Wrights..or Old Hitler Tapes..or Che..or Marxists..or anyone else they can Identify with who has the Same Anger they Do..

Another Big Social Problem and Law Enforcement Problem that the nation should be solving..That Hillary needs to understand better..and that Obama has to Stand Up to..If He thinks he’s any Kind of Leader..

We ARE a Nation..DIVIDED..

There is a Thin Line Between “US & THEM”

..

You get a gangmember out of da’ hood, can’t always get da’ hood out of the gang member.

The ultimate icons for this are the notorious NWA.

For their great(or notorious) success stories, everyone keeps forgetting Easy E’s departure from this world with full blown A.I.D.S. One in five of the NWA lineup died after making it big for a decade.

Twenty percent mortality odds at the top, and they’re basically five out of fifty million?

Tupac lasted less than that didn’t he? He was actually a gifted actor in his own right.

Good to see several make the departure into other realms, especially character acting.

Other news too, no matter how hard they want to act, the Fresh Prince owns all others in terms of paychecks this day and age. He didn’t have to act hard to get there either.

I’m not all sold on the genre myself, prefer other music types but when I encounter it more than not the mood matches, the vol goes up.

Too Short grew up here for a while, made a tour appearance when he was owning the charts. The county cops had everyone out and even some guard duty called in LOL. Lived in the PJ, Chickasaw Courts, off Cherokee St.(where some of mine did decades before) if I’m not mistaken.

The rappers, the gangstas and Wright - that does seem to be relevant. Not knowing you I wondered if you were going to call his sermons “reaching out” to these lost souls.And the same with Obama, but I don’t know of any gangstas or rappers they have reformed.
Maybe that black nationalism would be good for them if it made them put down the guns and the drugs and the crime. I guess that’s the idea with Farrakhan at least in so far as he is connected with the organization that gave us Malcolm X.
Personally, I do appreciate getting to read this view on Barack Obama. He seems to be very young to be president of the United States now and willing to do just about anything to win the nomination.

i like the eminem-papa doc analogy; it’s perfect.

You mean that Godamn country where a poor black kid from Chicago can go to Princeton and Harvard, can get executive jobs paying $300 k per year, and live in a big mansion while being seriously considered to be First Lady ? (e.g. Michelle, who is still angry).

Larry

I am begging you - please go back to what you are good at, National Security Matters, CIA, Covert Operations, International Affairs…

Because you sound sooooooo STUPID reviewing Ice Cube rap songs, giving us your take on “lyrics” and how they relate to Obama, etc.

Please, please - look in the mirror, go on vacation - this might be the “Jump the Shark” moment for you.

…and yes, you appear really, really old & white based on your post. “Akward….”

Who’s eminem?

[...] Here, you can even let your children come to listen! (Well, this morning anyway. And not counting Larry’s post last night, or Larry’s all-time great rant against DailyObama that elicited 389 [...]

“He’s the black guy white folks generally feel comfortable with. But Ice Cube is a different matter.”

Too funny Laryy… next time, before you get sooo comfortable w/ one rapper over the next - you might want to actually look into the issue.

Ice T came before Ice Cube, and was one of the early progenitors of “gansta rap”… Ice Cube, copied from him.

“more comfortable” - yes, but only because they’re only looking at the surface.

Reminds me of the joke from the Chappelle show:

“White people love Wayne Brady because he makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X”

I like Ice T on Law and Order. He’s a good actor (and white moron I am, confused him with Ice Cube).

Larry,

Like Clarence ThomASS ey? I’ve been reading that Condi has fallen out of favor for daring to talk about America’s Birth Defect.

Cube’s album cover featured a dead Uncle Sam covered in a U.S. flag. So Barack’s pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was not the first one to voice the sentiment–Goddamn America.

Correct. The first ones were white ministers in this country who aren’t taken to task for their comments.

Wright and Ice Cube share much in common. Both preach a message that black Americans are victims of white prejudice.

They are talking elite white prejudice. They aren’t talking about the average white person who is just a squirrel trying to get a nut like everyone else.
If you want to identify with white men of power who control you, be my guest.

Barack aligned himself with individuals like Wright and his new pastor, Otis Moss, who preach a form of black separation.

The majority of REAL Americans don’t agree with you. If Rev. Moss speaks of leaving the United Church of Christ family then I’ll pay attention to this seperatist movement.

Correction:

INCORRECT. The first ones were white ministers in this country who aren’t taken to task for their comments.

Fine then Cee, bear your burden, stand with the cross nailed to you in front of white churches explaining how wrong their god damn america preachers are.

Nobody’s saying you are presidential, Hussein.

Could you be a little more racist, Larry? I don’t think the Klan heard you.

Lordy, you people live in la-la land - over-analyzing and nitpicking to try and twist something to support your view points, and wandering so far down the road of fantasy in doing so, you seem as though you are on some hallucinationatory drugs.

Did you know that Rev Wright was quoting somebody else he saw/heard on FOX? Did you listen to his whole sermon, where the conclusion is one of forgiveness.

You don’t get the real “Barry” - because you don’t want to see it. Thank goodness there are people who do.

From what I read of Larry’s columns - is that he is continuously digging to find some tiny thing he can turn into a monstrous negative against Obama. There is nothing of substance - just hype.

Talk about false analogies.

Jeremiah Wright isn’t running for office. He’s a reverend, now retired, who was preaching to a primarily black audience. Reverend Wright served in the US Marines and is well respected among his fellow ministers (primarily white) in the United Church of Christ.

If you dare to go beyond the sound bites and listen to the entirety of Reverend Wright’s speech about the events of 9/11, you’ll observe that he preached for the need for introspection and thoughtfulness in the face of tragedy. He pointed out that when tragedy strikes, the human inclination is to lash out reflexively and in anger. The fact is that his observations were extraordinarily precient.

Propelled by the anger of a nation at the attacks of 9/11 and with the backing and support Hillary Clinton and others in Congress, President Bush lashed out at Iraq - despite the fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Hundreds of billions of dollars later with more than a million dead (according to the most scientific estimates), here we are. Tell me, how wrong was Jeremiah Wright?

If you’re objective is to help Hillary Clinton here, you’ve done anything but.

To call this profoundly retarded “analysis” racist would be an insult to thinking racists everywhere.

INCOGNITA…

Understand this Real Clear..

LARRY JOHNSON is NOT a Racist..He Did NOT Write the LYRICS He Put Up Here..he did NOT Write the Song TITLE..”THE WRONG NIGGA TO FUCK WIT”..A Black Man did..An African American..He degrades His OWN RACE just to make a Buck..He Teaches kids..Mostly Black Youth Nasty Words..and Bad Attitudes..

He Did it…ICE CUBE…”Black” Rapper..

NOT Larry Johnson..

He also Put a picture of a DEAD Uncle Sam on his cover..With the American Flag draped over it..

MESSAGE From This BLACK rapper..

You Can find that in the Lyrics..The Lyrics of a Black racist..Thwe same Message of Hate and Discriminatrion You Have heard from Jeremiah Wright..

The fact is that NOW..Blacks talk more Hatred and Racism than White People do..We didn’t tolerate it..we Teach Agaionst it…and the government went after the
Militant White racists like the KKK..and legal efforts made to end Segregation..

I am Not a racist..I Don’t ever teach racial hatred.. The Black community should examine if any of thier Own ARE Exploiting them..for MONEY from Drug or CD Sales..or are Degrading them and demeaning them…and demeaning thier Women..and setting Bad Examples for BLACK Children..

Like the Song Go’s INCOGNITA,,

“TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF….BEFORE YOU ACCUSE ME”

You’re embarrassing yourself, Larry. As a white member of the hip-hop generation, I am appalled and ashamed of my elders. Old people suck.

In a post like this it is important to do some research. First off, Sen. Obama lived with his mother and Indonesian step-father from age 6-10. He then went to live with his grandparents in Hawaii. While in Hawaii, he did attend Punahou Academy, but did so only on an academic scholarship. His family did not have money, and in fact there were periods of his childhood during which they needed food stamps. He also attended Columbia on an academic scholarship, and became the first African-American President of the Harvard Law Review in the school’s history. I challenge you to find anything divisive or racially charged that Sen. Obama has said, and before you go all overboard on the “typical white person” comment perhaps it could behoove you to read the entire statement as follows. “The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know there’s a reaction that’s been been bred into our experiences that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way and that’s just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it.”
Agreed he could have removed the word white, but he is clearly trying to say that his grandmother was not racist.
Mr. Johnson, I have respected your views, especially your defense of Ms. Wilson, during the CIA leak investigation, but the recent anything goes tactics and ugliness from both you and Amb. Wilson, have done nothing to advance the dialog to ultimately defeat Sen. McCain in the general election.

its time you leave the party… you are not a democrat anymore, this is vile filth

your true colors have been shown Larry. It will be a happy day when the democratic party purges you from their ranks. It was nice knowing you. Your 15 minutes fame are over.

Here is why I think this post is racist:

First, he tries to equate an “authentic black man” with some amalgamation of Ice Cube and Wright. Apparently that is Larry’s understanding of an “authentic black man”.

He portrays Wright as having an agenda of snookering his followers into believing that Obama had a black single mother. As if Wright (or Wright’s followers) would have had no interest in Obama having a white mother. So there, he’s painting Wright or Wright’s congregation as being concerned about some sort of racial purity… without giving us any reason to actually believe that. It’s just an assumption of Larry’s that the black people would only think in those terms.

Then there’s private schools, privileged upbringing, and elite colleges… each somehow being phrased as being mutually exclusive to being black. And therefore, a deficit to somehow make up for in proving one’s blackness. It’s Larry that ascribes that motivation to Obama. Not because of any evidence, that’s Larry’s assumption.

And of course the “gangsta” riff. That serves no purpose than to paint Obama with the negative stereotype. Larry’s intention.

Honestly, if that’s what it really meant to be black, I probably wouldn’t want him to lead the nation either. But the problem is, that’s actually what Larry thinks it means.

It sounds like Larry needs an education on what it actually means to be black. I think there’s a high bar to calling someone racist. It’s got to be more than believing there are racial distinctions, and it’s got to be more even than ignorance or fear… but Larry’s speaking here as if blackness itself - as he defines it - is a mark against someone being desirable as a President.

So yeah. It’s racist.

Racist much? This is disgusting. Hillary’s supporters have been so blinded they turn to racism in their futile attempt to destroy Obama. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Quick tip.. It’s John McCain that will be the problem. Painting Barack Obama as Angry Black to askeer white peeps into thinking they’d better not let “Someone like that near the White House” is going to be what the GOP will try to do.

For the record.. You deserve to lose.

Have a look at some of the remarks that seem to suggest that what you are talking about is ok. This is what race baiting intends to do, and I just had a fuck of a day trying to explain this to thick heads who still try their damndest to claim that It’s Barack Obama that is responsible for these things.

Keep at it. It’ll at the very least innoculate people about the tactic.. But you’re a racist.. and a scumbag. You save the GOP a lot of money doing these paint jobs for them. I don’t know why you would be considered knowledgable on terrorism if you can’t understand the underpinnings for some of the rage that these “Gangstas” expressed in their music.

Try empathizing with people that worry more about their kids being shot or stabbed at school, people who get pulled over for driving on the wrong street, people who work to get drug houses removed from their block.. and then think about what the example of Barack Obama will bring to them.

By the way, thanks to gqmartinez above for making the point about how America has changed, and these “Gangstas” have changed and matured and evolved along with it.

I support Hillary Clinton, and I DENOUNCE AND REJECT this post.

Please get the fuck out of my party.

OH LORD. I knew this post would be conroversial as soon as I saw the word “nigga” in the title.

Larry is not a racist. This is the same excuse Obama supporters have been accusing Clintonites of since the beginning of this campaign. Someone can’t even quote a rap song without being called a racist.

But Jeremiah Wright? Obama supporters call him misunderstood or justified in his anger. There is no excuse for the things he said to his congregation. So coming here and calling Larry a racist because he used the word “nigga” in his title and associating that song with Obama’s life story as a BI-RACIAL man who has attempted his entire life to somehow prove that he is black by joining this controversial church is valid. Larry had a point and the things he has pointed out are the same things I thought about when I first saw that youtube video of Rev. Wright. How can he talk about a Hillary - a white woman - in his sermon when he doesn’t even ackonwledge the fact that Obama’s own mother was a white woman? I’m sure Obama’s mother is turning in her grave right now if she knew her son was going to a church like this which demonizes all white people and makes generalizations that anyone who doesn’t consider racist is obviously in denial.

I’m not saying Larry knows much about black culture or rap music but let the guy analyze this. If Obama and his minions want to discuss race then let us discuss it without being so sensitive we’ve gotta jump every white person who does the same thing Obama and his racist pastor has been doing for the last 20 years.

Reading your ‘post’ was a real head-shaking experience. In my mind I started to formulate my arguments - your interesting assumption that ‘authentically black’ is somehow incompatible with privilege for example. But then I surveyed some of the other offerings on this site and came to the conclusion that I would be ‘pissing into the wind’ as they say. And, taking into consideration the interesting polls which are counter-intuitive to the many insistences here that Obama is failing dismally; the delegate win in Texas and the big super-delegate move currently afoot, I realized I really need not bother. Better to let the results in the coming two months speak for themselves.

I’m really glad to see Obama’s supporters heeding their candidates call for a frank and open discussion of race. Shouting down people for their opinions is perpetuating the cycle.

I’m not a Clinton supporter, but I’m a longtime DailyKos reader and sick to fuck of the Obama supporters on that site lying in wait to cry racism at every turn, thereby cheapening the charge right in time for the general election, when you can count on the Republicans to reeeeally be racist.

You fucking idiots.

Love,
Extremely “soft” Obama supporter who hates online Obama supporters, really and truly, oh yes.

Larry is just angry because Hillary Clinton has lost the Democratic primary; he’s angry and he’s lashing out. When he apologizes, we should all try our best to forgive him.

This music and talk scares most people, white and black.

Ok, fair enough.

And let’s face it. Barack Obama has been trying portray himself as an authentic black man,

If most black people are “scared” by this stuff, why is Barack precluded from being uncomfortable with it? Why does he have to agree? Let’s see where Larry takes this.

when he has had a privileged lifestyle.

Oh, so being a black man automatically means that you can’t be privileged, and that you must agree with any random rap lyrics (even though he just said “white and black” people are “scared” by the lyrics…but that’s ok Larry, we know it was just a rhetorical turn). Does that mean all white people agree with the lyrics produced by, say, Marilyn Manson? No, because that’s ridiculous. No group is monolithic in such a way. BUT, when you attack or seek to invalidate that which makes them similar, like Bill did after the SC primary and you are now, what do you expect them to do but band together?

Your come to Jesus moment can’t come too soon, Larry.

The major problem with your post is that it rests so solidly on broad and profound ignorance. First is that you confuse the class backgrounds of all your characters. Of all the individuals that you mention in this post, the only one without a college degree or diploma is in fact, your good guy, Ice T, who went into the army after high school. And, the music that you criticize so cluelessly, gangsta rap, was in fact created by none other than the same good guy: Ice T. He had a child while still in high school, and his album Home Invasion was one of the most controversial gangsta rap albums of all time. You obviously know squat about that.

Your bad guy, Ice T, on the other hand, graduated with a diploma in Architectural Drafting from Phoenix Institute of Technollogy in 1987. Both his parents were employees of UCLA and unlike Ice T, Cube grew up in a middle class household.

Your other bad guy ‘gangsta’, Jeremiah Wright, who by your account is supposed to come from a worse than middle-class background (as opposed to Obama’s supposed middle-class background), in fact came from a solidly middle-class clergy family, attended Virginia Union University, joined the US Marine Corps, and then transferred to the US Navy, eventually graduating valedictarian from the Great Lakes Naval Center in 1963. Wright then studied at the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland from where he graduated salutarian in 1967. He trained as a cardiopulmonary technician. As a naval medic, US Navy Corpsman Third Class Jeremiah Wright participated in President Lyndon Johnson’s heart surgery at the United States Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland in November 1966. Wright eventually earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard University in 1968, and a master’s from the same university in 1969. Howard, as you probably know, is the nation’s flagship historically black college. Then Wright earned a master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School, one of the nation’s most respected, and eventually a Doctor of Ministry degree from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton.

Contrary to the insinuations in your blog, Dr. Jeremiah Wright is not a street gangsta. On the contrary, he apparently received a doctoral degree before you did.

To complicate things further for you, Barack Obama did indeed come from a far less well-to-do family than Jeremiah Wright. His father left when he was two, and like Bill Clinton (whose father also died young in a car crash, like Obama’s), he was raised by his grandparents. Like Clinton he went to those elite schools that everyone talks about on scholarships earned through hard work, not as a consequence of family privilege. His mother and grandparents could never have put him through college. He paid his way through college and logged a student loan.

So your class analyses, your insinuations, your claims of who is searching from gangsta street cred from whom, your opinions on who is gangsta and who is not, all turn out to be wrong and ill-informed by ignorance and poor research, which is surprising coming from a highly qualified sociologist like you.

What happened? Is it perhaps the case that in your eagerness to throw your race-bait, you threw all requisites of your calling as a scholar out the window? Or is it the case that you feel that when it comes to commentary on black people, your ignorance is enough and you need do no research? Or did you willingly suppress what you know or found out so you can go ahead and make your no-point?

Clean up your act, Sir. Do your research. Deepen your knowledge before you pontificate. Leave the race inferno alone: don’t fan it. As a well-regarded public intellectual, try and play a more positive role. Keep your ignorant opinion to yourself when you are in the public space. Pull back from this divisive duty that you have appointed yourself for partisan reasons. Do not write or say anything that you end up apologying for, to quote another rapper that you might not know anything about. And by the way, take time and study Jeremiah Wright’s sermons with the objectivity of the intellectual that you are, if you can still manage it, and ask yourself if Jesus would preach different today. You can certainly do better. Thank you.

Larry.

Not the least problem in your analysis, but it’s Ice-T who performs on Law and Order. Not Ice Cube. Ice Cube is a singer and actor too. But they’re really not at all alike. And your confusing them betrays rather a bit of a problem with your entire premise.

Ice-T once endured a bit of controversy with one of his songs, “Cop Killer,” for which he was condemned basically because of the song’s title. The lyric detailed the story of a protagonist killing a police officer, quite identical in plotline to the Dirty Harry movie wherein the protagomist (played by Clint Eastwood) killed several bad guy cops. That was the point - the cop in Ice-T’s song was a crooked cop.

But Ice-T is black, and Eastwood is white, and the actual detail particulars of the twin storytelling were irrelevant to Ice-T’s critics. They weren’t interested in the storytelling context of the song or the fact that a white tough guy hero icon did precisely the same thing in a movie for which they so enthusiastically vilified the singer. That bothersome parallel didn’t serve their political agenda, so it was conveniently ignored. They chose instead to cynically employ a prejudiced double standard to foment a controversy based on isolating a song title voided of context, as a basis for what was, in fact, nothing but a political smear.

But at least they knew who they were talking about.

Chris

While I might agree that race does not exist biologically, it has enormous import/currency socially, which is the point I’m assuming with regard to ‘culture’. However culture too is a highly contested term, so can’t say I completely agree with your substitution. Regardless. I do have a problem with your

“what is Obama going to do for my community? He doesn’t come from my community and didn’t experience, nor did his parents, what my parents experienced as black folks in America. Maybe his wife’s did, but he didn’t. And now suddenly he’s my black candidate? Don’t get me wrong I’m going to vote for him, but I’m under no illusions that he understands my experience or that of my people going way back. He can’t understand it outside of intellectual gatherings.”

Authenticity IS at issue here - it feeds directly back into the ‘monolithic’ homogeneous black experience that is too simplistic for my liking, and as you rightly point out, is often used to ‘cast out’ those that don’t fit the monolithic image. Now that does not mean I find Larry’s article ‘racist’, I don’t. I do find it fairly uninformed, and I resent a white person appropriating a discussion of authenticity and then try to link it somewhat clumsily to a fairly unsubstantiated point; that - as you say:

the cultural values espoused by Jeremiah Wright (using the example of Ice Cube’s song with it) are in conflict with the mainstream American voice.

That might have been perceived wisdom I could have agreed with months ago, Obama’s surprising rebound in the polls indicate otherwise. To what extent it has yet to be ascertained. I don’t deny his right to make the point however, given the tone of he posts generally I simply choose not to engage him on it.

I also dislike how quickly people latch on to the concept of ‘politically un-correct’ as somehow concomittant with bravery or truthfulness. Some of the most revolting and bigoted things I’ve heard people say are prefaced with the phrase “I know this is not politically correct but …”. I have a quote I keep by my computer in fact:

We have now reached the point where every goon with a grievance, every bitter bigot, merely has to place the prefix, ‘I know this is not politically correct, but…’ in front of the usual string of insults in order to be not just safe from criticism, but actually a card, a lad, even a hero. Conversely, to talk about poverty and inequality, to draw attention to the reality that discrimination and injustice are still facts of life, is to commit the sin of political correctness. Anti-PC has become the latest cover for creeps. It is a godsend for every curmudgeon and crank, from fascists to the merely smug.
- Finigan O’Toole

Blahblah - Obama supporters, like all candidates’ supporters come in all flavors - some willing to engage in ‘race’ talk without over-reacting others not. As you yourself attest.

The last word:
you are all fools.
larry got you all…
is nice to have hate mongers (like “andy”) speak up.
at least that way we can see them clearly…
“andy” we know now who you are…
you are a Hate Monger. We have your Ip adress logged.
you loser, you led us right to yourself.
Reverend Wright is coming to get you. watch out.
Oh, and, “we don’t want anyone who likes rap near the white house.”
Ahaahahahahhahhahahaa…wow.
Americans being fooled into showing their true colors by Larry Johnson, No Quarter; Americans using their online identity to prove their stupidity, priceless.
Listen, Obama is no tupac or ice T or ice cube. If he was, there’d be no question no who to vote for.
Still, that said, he’s the best chance we have at being actually accepted into the Kingdom of Christ.
Christ will forgive you only if you vote for Obama.
Remember that…or else you will burn in hell!
(well…but you probably would if there was a hell and if you did vote for mccain.)
Cheers, nighaz.

Oh.My.God. Larry Johnson has just outed himself as a racist for the world to see. And apparently he’s proud of it, too. I hope all Clinton supporters who read this drivel reject and denounce Larry Johnson (hello, Taylor Marsh, Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, et al). One only has to read the insulting comments here to know this blog is flypaper to morons. (Present company excepted since I heard about this crap and had to come see for myself.)
Shame on you, Larry Johnson.

excuse my typo. synonomous is meant to be synonymous. my apologies. must be that i am from a poor state-run college…
(oh, by the way, the idiot in charge of that college is Mitch Daniels, so, what do we really expect, eh?)

I think this is more a case of Larry being an Idiot than being a Racist. But I guess he could also be considered a Racist Idiot in certain circles.

Tactics from Obama’s camp and certain supporters:
play the “white racism” card; play with those feeling “white guilt”.

We have seen these tactics played before by Obama’s campaign over and over in SC and MS. They are desperate again because of Obama’s excuses for his life-long disgraceful relationship with Jeremiah Wright are not working with the GE.
So here we go again into PA. Recall Obama’s call to Rendell … See the pattern.

Sean Wilentz explains once again Obama camp’s playing the race card. This time in the Philly Inquirer.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/17133626.html

this is the stupidest post i’ve ever read.
Nothing but grasping at straws to portray Barack Obama as a colleague and fellow traveller with Ice Cube? Who left the gansta rap world for family movies in Hollywood?

That’s just dumb. This is a joke right? Cus there’s no way this is serious.

Larry isn’t an idiot - he’s far too educated than that. But he is ignorant. And willing to say anything if he thinks it will lead to even one more person to hate Obama.

the metaphor here is so thin it is pathetic.

There’s no “metaphor” intended here: It’s just reality, and it bites for Obama, as he will discover in November if he is the nominee:

Barack’s previous efforts to hang with the equivalent of ideological and financial gangstas (Wright, Ayers, and Rezko) is now biting him in the ass. You cannot buddy up with folks who say Fuck America and Goddamn America and “my only regret is I didn’t plant more bombs” and hope to lead a nation that is predominantly white and latino. That dog don’t hunt.

Get over it.
This is not 1960.
A contemporary “Authentic Black Man” is privleged and intelligant, and able to lead this country as we, the people, seek to take it back from the elite like Johnson/Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney.
Enough hate. Enough war. Enough killing.
Elect Obama for real change.
that’s all there is to that. The elite is proving it for you. all you need to is recognize what you are seeing to see the proof.
Johnson is wrong, as are the rest of his elite cronies.
He’s not an idiot, not a bigot, not a racist, not a democrat, not a republican, not ignorant, none of that.
He is in the “in-crowd” of the elite.
How do you think you get to be in his shoes in this administration (think of his titles and roles)?
C’mon. Reality check, folks.

sure, chris, i get it.

Obama’s pastor is Jeremiah Wright, who has said critical things about the US.
Ice Cube, noted former gangsta rapper has ALSO said critical things about the US, so clearly he’s an analog for Wright. Thus by remaining at Trinity, Barack Obama is a fellow traveller with wright, and thus Cube.

Of course, this makes every Catholic who remains a member of the church an apologist for child molestation, but hey since we’re scoring cheap political shots, why not go all the way?

“[blah, blah, blah, blah, blah] And that’s the problem for Barack.”

The latin name for the logical fallacy contained herein eludes me, but the english translation is simple: unalloyed bigotry.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far from here, I had some respect for Mr. Johnson — as an analyst and a blogger. No more.

This post, this miasmic blurring of gansta rap lyrics and film scenes with the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, has no purpose but to excite racial animus.

It is grievously sad that so many of Hilary Clinton’s supporters, Mr Johnson included, would have bigotry decide our fate in ‘08.

Larry — I think you forgot to include your central point, which is that the Obama’s new preacher — Moss — quoted Ice Cube and his rap “Wrong Nigga to Fuck wit” in his Easter service. You need to put that in there, otherwise this doesn’t make sense and makes you look racist.

WTF does a privileged white guy from the CIA know about the black experience anyway? I mean, other than making sure crack made it into South Central LA?

Wow this thread really got the koolaid fountain flowing. I understood the original post, and as a commenter pointed out, Rev. Moss quoted Ice Cube and his rap “Wrong Nigga to Fuck wit” in his Easter service. But the kneejerk commenters aren’t acknowledging that.

I love that someone posted that Larry was a ‘white person with a privileged background’, what exactly does that person know of his background? And why would commenters here believe that Obama would know shit about the “black experience” or having a tough life? He grew up in Hawaii, went to prestigious schools as a child. Hawaii has always been a multi-racial environment. He then went to Indonesia where he also went to a private school. Then he went to Harvard. His father is of a mixed race, and his mother is white. So, I’m trying to figure why people are trying to give him some black street cred. It’s a ludicrous story that people are writing for him, and it’s just not true.

The title sounds like a a stage direction pertaining to an interaction btw two potential posters here: “WrongNigga to FuckWit:”

Here’s somebody woho speaks a lot like Larry Johnson. They seem to have a similar point of view

“

Barack Obama has stressed continually that he is a candidate for President for “all the people” and for the new day of a “colorblind society.” It is the identical rhetoric used by every serious candidate both Democrat and Republican. In order to win a significant percentage of the 70 percent White electorate that he needs, what else could he say? But, does Obama really mean it? Or, is it just another lie in what must qualify as the most hypocritical profession on earth: politics?

Compelling evidence shows that Barack Obama is an Afro-American whose ultimate loyalty is not to “all the people of the United States,” but primarily to his fellow African-Americans.

A candidate with racial loyalty is not extraordinary in itself, but it is quite amazing in a nation in which it is presented as the worst of crimes. Apparently though, according to the media and the political establishment, racial loyalty is only reprehensible when practiced by we White folks, the descendants of our European American forefathers.

The media has given Obama a free pass on his participation and close association with Black racist organizations and leaders. Few Americans are even aware yet of this side of Obama. Here is quick rundown of the undisputed facts:

Barack Obama is an active member of an extremist, Afro-Centrist Black church in Chicago and is admittedly very close to its Afro-centrist and unarguably (by media standards) racist pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Obama has frequently spoken of his closeness to Rev. Wright, Jr. and his active important participation in the church. He credits Rev. Wright and his church as having a vital role in the development of his own religious faith as well as his moral and ethical convictions

David Duke”

If it looks like racist and talks like a racist it must be Larry C. Johnson

I think you got your black Ice’s confused, Ice T is on Law and Order Special Victim’s Unit.

He credits Rev. Wright and his church as having a vital role in the development of his own religious faith as well as his moral and ethical convictions…

“Vital role” does not equate to making a direct mold.

I credit Nixon for teaching me how to not tape affairs in my office I really expect to remain unknown.

Doesn’t mean, just ’cause I learned something from him, that I am exactly like him, does it?

Perhaps I (in this example, or Obama, case in point) am smart enough to not only learn the good, but to acknowledge the wrong, and learn from that as well. In fact, the only real way to learn how not to want to be “something/anything” is to see how that “thing” works and learn from it…

For my money, that influence is a great source of wisdom…or at very least, could be…

Who here stands for every single thing their preacher stands for?

GOOD TO SEE HILLARY AND BILL’S RACE-BAiting catching on so nicely.

Obama’s preacher is so bad that Bill Clinton invited him the the white house after he got caught lying about not fucking that woman Monica. Well, he did fuck her in the mouth, in the oval office no less, and while Hillary was in the house. And so Bill called on Obama’s preacher to come to the WH to forgive him for his sins.

Who are Hillary and Larry going to call to help them obtain forgiveness for their race-baiting and racial dividing?

“There is no denying that rap and hip hop have enjoyed commercial success. But success does not mean it is widely accepted. It ain’t mainstream.”

Huh?
That makes no sense:

Phat Farm, a $263 million company, sells itself as “classic American flava with a twist” and its logo is an upside-down American flag. One of Simmons’ new clothing lines, Run Athletics, is featured in Sears Roebuck & Co. (S ) and J.C. Penney Co. (JCP ). Another, Def Jam University, will be available in Sears next year; it alone could be worth $100 million before the end of the decade. Already, Phat Farm does its best business in a chain of stores called d.e.m.o., located almost entirely in suburban malls. The word phat (”highly attractive or gratifying”) has been added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.

There is hardly a major consumer company around that isn’t trying to cash in on hip-hop’s singular popularity, if not its edgy authenticity. Hip-hop music, and its signature style, rap, emerged from mostly impoverished, largely African-American urban neighborhoods, grew into an entire way of life, and today dominates youth culture. It’s not about race or place. It’s an attitude, a state of mind. Marketing experts estimate that one-quarter of all discretionary spending in America today is influenced by hip-hop. Coke (K ), Pepsi (PEP ), Heineken, Courvoisier, McDonald’s (MCD ), Motorola (MOT ), Gap (SE ), Cover Girl — even milk: They all use hip-hop to sell themselves. “There has been a bona fide cultural shift,” says Marian Salzman, chief strategic officer at advertising agency Euro RSCG Worldwide. “This is the new mainstream,” says Erin Patton, president of the Mastermind Group, marketing consultants. And, in truth, there is no easy way to fully calculate its impact on our clothes, cars, movies, music, commercials, our very language.

No, not mainstream at all…

Larry,

I’ve read you carefully for quite some time, and have been grateful to you as a patriot and as an activist. I’ve cited you as an authority and pointed people to your work many times.

That’s why I’ll be taking some time to respond to this. You brought up so many things in your post, it will be hard to address them all, but I’ll try.

I think there are all kinds of well-taken angles from which to argue that Obama is not the best candidate for president now. I’m not sure I read any of them here.

Others in this thread have touched upon (thank you Bruce) the problems with analyzing class and race by Hollywood stereotype. I also am not sure how you derived “authentically black” to mean poor, uneducated, and somehow violent. (Was MLK Jr. “inauthentic”? Is Condi Rice “inauthentic”?)

Obama is biracial, and he has always sought the more difficult path of walking effectively and respectfully in many circles–white and black, poor and not-poor. It has been hard for him.

When he was in the Illinois legislature, he was viewed with suspicion because he worked so easily with white Republicans to get changes enacted. Earlier, when Obama found direction in his passion for service, and sought to put his privilege to use addressing some of the suffering he saw in the streets of Chicago, he found he could not do so while he was perceived as an outsider.

And an outsider he was. As you said, though he had a dead father and largely absent mother, and though his family was not wealthy and nothing was handed to him (he was not a “legacy” admittance to Yale with a C average), compared to many, he was indeed “privileged.” His education, and his upbringing in a traditional white household, did set him apart from the group of people he wanted to connect with and serve.

Many black churches would have offered an opportunity for Obama fulfill his personal need for belonging in an African American circle, but the UCC congregation he joined offered a unique inroad to the struggling urban poor through its extensive social programs, and an way for him to become known and trusted among the most needy and struggling people in the Chicago black community, with whom he hoped to work.

With regard to Reverend Wright, he has never advocated revenge or violence, and in this, his words cannot be compared to the rap lyrics you quoted so extensively. Wright has never argued that blacks are somehow racially superior or should have the power to systemically disenfranchise others. In this, Wright’s statements can’t be compared to those of white separatists, either.

That said, I can’t think of anything further from Obama’s core outlook than the obvious bitterness, paranoia and even delusion that comes out in some of Wright’s sermons. Obama fiercely distanced himself from those sentiments. But, like Clinton’s minister Dean Snyder, Huckabee and McCain in their statements regarding Wright, Obama views Wright’s outbursts in the context of a history of pain, and weighs his rhetoric against his good works, which are legion.

Wright’s statements can also be understood as criticisms of systems of (white) power, not attacks on everyday white citizens. They can be viewed in the context of the often more insidious material (more dangerous because it has more institutional power) that comes from right wing white ministers, some of whom the Clintons, for example, are very close to.

We can go on for months analyzing Wright, or feverishly drawing ties, however thin, between Obama and controversial figures he has worked with in seeking the greater good.

But if, indeed, we are to judge Obama’s candidacy by the “scumbags I’ve hung with” metric, it’s only fair to apply the same measure to the Clintons, Hillary being the only remaining Democratic choice.

The Clintons did overturn the criminal convictions of a long list of thugs and hoodlums. What does that say about the Clintons’ associations, and their impact on governance?

(You must already realize that the length and contents of that list, overlooked largely in the wake of the Lewinsky scandal, will be one of the first lines of attack from the right if Clinton is the nominee, and it will be viewed by the voters afresh.)

All that said, I’d like to see the candidates evaluated on their performance in the Senate, their votes, their suggested policies, and their projected solutions. It troubles me that nobody paid attention to the substantial speeches on the state of Iraq and the economy that Obama gave immediately after his “race speech,” which was given only in response to the Wright scandal.

Perhaps, someday, we can have an election about ideas and solutions, rather than fear, division, and diversion. I personally would like my Constitution back, for starters. And I know McCain won’t help.

Honestly….I Don’t Think That OBAMA “FIERCELY
DISTANCED HIMSELF” from Pastor Wright…not by a long shot…He Spead enough Frosting around in the hope the media felt He had made the cake Sweet enough to swallow..

I think Oama went to CHICAGO..(Talk about Gangster Land)..
and to this Church in Particular just so he could find a Group and Cause
that would help Obama be Able to Find ways to seek out His “ROOTS” and “BOND” with his Father and his fathers political Ideology and Activity in Kenya..

Look How Obama Played the Game ever since he got there..Look how He made a name for himself..Look how
He got elected..look how the competetion got..
“ELIMINATED”…Drive By Phone Calls..

You Really believe Obama and His friends are really a bunch of Social Working “HAPPY FACES”..taking baskets of food to the Needy..??

Obama has not even come close to beginning a real debate on Race issues..Or Fiercly denouncing Pastor Wright for His WRONG…….RACISTS ….RANTS..
and he should be ashamed to call himself a Minister
of the “GOSPEL” of Jesus ..or even of the Bible..or even of the Ten commandments..”LOVE YOUR NIEGHBOR”

Obama has not even come close to Fiercely denouncing the Hate Rants of the ICE CUBES out there…who talks about taking His “SawedOff” Or A of K (AK Assault Rifle”) jamming in a 30 round Clip and Killing Uncle Sam..( A White Person laying on a Slab with the American Flag drapped over him..and Ice Cube standing next to HIM.

That MIND Set is what Pastor Wright seems to share..

You say wrights attacks are Against the SYSTEM..(of White Power) but NOt against White People..What Kind of Double talk ..lame excuse making is that..

You say The ICE CUBES and pastor Wrights Racist Rants and hate filled Comments “DON”T” Compare to White Supremists..or White Seperatists..??

They are WORSE..and what you said is a Flat Out Lie..

Look at the Lyrics Larry Quote Above..Look at Ice Cubes other Lyrics on his PREDATOR Albumn..Look at the Frenzy of the people behind Pastor Wright while He is Talking about The USKKK of A..and that 9/11 was a Payback..

Hillary Clinton was not President..during those pardons..Lets wait and see who your Boy..Obama Pardons if He gets elected…

You say..Evaluate the Candidates performance in the
SENATE….OObama Has no Record..No show..No Vote..

CASE MADE..HILLARY WINS..

Oh..and for someone who is so Concerned about the CONSTITUTION..It Says in its Preamble..”WE, THE PEOPLE, IN ORDER TO FORM A MORE PERFECT UNION”..
you have just put another nail in it with you own
HAMMER..

Thank God there are a Majority of Good decent People in America of ALL COLOR…willing to Stand Up for Hillery and denounce the ICE CUBES and Pastor Wright who Spew hatred and racism..and Violence..and are DIVIDING Our nation..NOT Uniting it..

All I Know is..Those have been Obamas Homies..and Obama has alot to learn about TRUTH & TRUST..

[...] poses significant challenges for him should he be the Democratic nominee for President. My piece, The “Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit” Dilemma for Barack, was inspired by Barack’s new pastor, Otis [...]

gosh darn. those nasty black preachers with their damning america and those hateful black gangsta rappers with their cursing and sexist lyrics. yay for men like eminem who come along to show them the proper way…

So to the parents of America
I am the damager aimed at little Erica
To attack her character
The ring leader of the circus of worthless pawns
Sent to lead the march right up to the steps of Congress
And piss on the lawns of the White House
To burn the casket and replace it with a parental advisory sticker
To spit liquor in the faces of this democracy of hipocracy
Fuck you Ms. Cheney
Fuck you Tipper Gore
Fuck you with the freeness of speech this divided states of embarrasment Will allow me to have
Fuck You!

–eminem, white america

This creature, Larry Johnson, is a snake and an enemy of the left.

He is, without doubt, an insidious Republican shill. No liberal person should ever be taken in again by this creep after hearing that he was responsible for the release of the video that is now making life hell for Randi Rhodes.

Larry, your time is coming!

As far as black racist songs, us old school crackers still get a kick out of Garrett Morris’ tune from the ’70s SNL:

I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see,
I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see,
If I kill all the whiteys I see,
Then whitey he won’t bother me,
I’m gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see.

This is the one of the most hilarious blogs ever especially since Barack Obama will be President soon. The underlying racism stinks here and it makes me sad. However, I still respect freedom of speech and I love my fellow man. Obama ‘08 baby.