Snackable Rants

I'm assuming everyone saw at least a little of the recent nonsense where a bunch of Fox news anchors (and some other friendly folks) pretended they were outraged about Common being invited to the White House so they could continue questioning Obama's judgement.

In case anyone missed it, here's a speedy recap:

1) Common released a track with Cee-Lo in 1999 called 'A Song For Assata', which continues the case for Assata Shakur's innocence, while praising her perseverance and spirit

2) Common wrote a 2007 poem entitled 'Letter To The Law' calling the Bush administration corrupt and criticizing the War on Terror.

3) Apparently either of those things are a big deal, and lots of people lost their shit, culminating in Karl Rove calling another human being a 'Thug', and than presumably bursting immediately into flames.

Jon Stewart has already ABLY covered this matter, but I want to bring up a side point. If people haven't yet checked it out, "A Song for Assata" is quite a touching piece of music (regardless if you agree with the premise), and it seems a particularly strange target considering another, more controversial aspect of this album has gone relatively unaddressed.

Don't get me wrong, Like Water for Chocolate is in many ways a masterpiece. It's funky as hell, razor sharp, and confronts issues of sexism, violence, materialism and race with great insight and clarity. It's also blatantly homophobic.

From 'Dooinit': Niggas ain't hate you, they pay you no attention/In a circle of Faggots, your name is mentioned

From 'Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the World)': There's rumors of gay MCs, just don't come around me with it/You still rockin' hickeys, don't let me find out HE did it

From 'Thelonius': Plus, you rhyme like a nigga with his nipples pierced


Now apparently this very March, Common was approached by a couple of gay fans who took him to task for lyrics like these, and he has since pledged to stop dropping gay slurs in his rhymes. It should also be noted that Like Water for Chocolate is over a decade old, and Common is certainly not the first rapper to struggle with a fear of homosexuality.

But what we seem to have witnessed in this whole Common misdirection play is a group of generally hateful people taking a positive artist to task for a loving song about someone they hate, while letting another group that was legitimately hated on remain undefended because they still have no love for them.

Haters gon' hate.