Exactly. Its poetry, its abstract. Perceive it, how you want to perceive it. That is the beauty of art.
bush invited a gay male prostitute named jeff gannon to the white house over 200 times and the media totally ignored it.
I very much doubt the media would have criticized Bush for inviting this rapper to the White House, if he chose to do so.
You're making this too complicated. It has nothing to do with Common's artistic ability or whether his lyrics are "abstract" (can you imagine such deference to nuance given to a white person holding those views?). It's simple. Common has defended convicted cop killers and discourages interracial relationships. Should he be honored over others with an invitation to a tax payer funded event at the White House? Personally, the arts have no place in government. I would abolish all such events as a waste of time and tax dollars. It's amazing to me how much time the President spends celebrating this or that. People are scraping just to get by out here and he's wasting our money putting on poetry festivals. Bush and all recent presidents have been guilty of these extravagant ceremonial celebrations or events or whatever. It reeks of status and privilege. The POTUS is supposed to be a civil servant working for us, yet they lead a lifestyle more suited for royalty. Inviting professional sports teams to the White House? Really? What purpose does this serve? How much does it cost to arrange such events? Probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. The point about Bush is simply to note the double standard. If Bush had invited an artist to perform that held such views, he would be (rightly) maligned.
Just to be clear, you think Bush would have been more maligned if he invited Common to the White House? By whom?
Bush would be maligned for inviting Common by the same folks criticizing Obama for inviting Common. But if Bush invited a white country singer who held views on interracial relationships that Common does, their would be an uproar.
What would the reaction be if Obama invited a white country singer who was against interracial relationships? Certainly not the same as Obama inviting Common. Again, you seem to want to turn this into an Obama vs Bush thing, when I don't think it is. The issue is that whites and blacks have different experiences in this country, and "liberals" believe their attitudes towards race and other cultural topics needs to be understood in that context while "conservatives" apparently think context should be discarded.
Was looking and wondering why the thread was still getting attention. Are people actually making an argument that Common is a thug/gangster rappper? LOL, what? And why would anybody listen to Karl Rove. Dude didn't even graduate college. That's true but saying Common is a thug makes no sense. Nobody in the hip-hop world thinks he is a thug. The only people that think he is thug are people from the outside looking in and picking and choosing from lyrics and small quotes that seem questionable but don't look at him as whole. This thread.... Language Spoiler
Translation: It's ok for blacks to oppose interracial relationships because whites have historically oppressed blacks. An understandable emotion, but not rational or moral or worthy of promotion. "Context" is often evoked to excuse immorality, rather than explain it. "sure Common is a bigot, but whites have oppressed his people so we won't hold it against him." And liberals have no problem being judgmental, as long as it's not toward "disadvantaged" minorities, which makes them uncomfortable. When it comes to minorities, liberals are much more willing to accept intolerance (see Islam).
Untrue - I posit an exemplar: your posts are intolerably stupid, to the point of making you obviously disadvantaged due to sheer idiocy, as well as intolerant in general, and very few are willing to accept them.
I know what you think of my posts, no need to keep repeating the same sentiment over and over. It's just spam.
That's not what I said or meant. If a person has a particular position, I judge them based on the reasons for their position. Not doing so, to me, is irrational. If Common has a problem with interracial relationships because he doesn't like or is in some way disgusted by white people, that's wrong and racist. If his issue with it stems from a belief that it reflects lack of self-respect, which is essentially what he said in the interview, I may disagree with him strongly but not consider it racism. How I judge him from a moral standpoint depends on such things.
Does nobody remember that the "Burn a Bush" thing started when Bush I ran against Dukakis? I even remember the dual slogan, "Burn a Bush and cook a Quayle". Nobody thought it was literal back then, they just wanted them to lose. That is asinine and short-sighted (narrow-minded, ignorant...whatever). All cultures have produced art. All governments have been involved in art making and art promotion. Art is the soul to the body of a nation, culture, experience, etc. The government promoting culture, education, etc, is important and a part of being human. One celebration of poetry for the year is not going to have any effect on increasing unemployment.
If only it were one celebration per year. That could be said about a million other pet projects that nickel and dime us to death. It's basic broken windows theory. A frugal tone needs to be established from the top down. If you aren't willing to cut back on something as unnecessary as a poetry festival, nothing will ever get cut. Culture and arts will do just find without funding by force. If it can't be supported voluntarily, too bad. What's short sighted is borrowing to fund aesthetics and sticking the bill with those not yet born, who have no say in the matter.
has anyone pointed out the fact that fox news has not one, but two convicted felons on their payroll? g. gordon liddy - in a post-9/11 world this guy would be considered a domestic terrorist - aside from his involvement in watergate he advocated murdering journalists who wrote unfavorable articles about nixon and kidnapping anti-war activists. he also said the following... oliver north - illegally sold weapons to iran and used those funds to support terrorists in latin america as well as narcotics trafficking.
