I have another verse that I must add to my Change Demand prose. I was listening to Race for the Whitehouse on MSNBC today (in the kitchen cooking up a storm), and I heard the host David Gregory start talking about Barack Obama and Ludacris, so I had to run to the TV (or shuffle in my condition) to see what that was about. As he and his guest started the conversation, I shook my head in disbelief…”Here we go again”, I thought. Luda posted his newest rant “Politics (Obama is Here)” on YouTube just slashing all of Obama’s major opponents both past and present including the current Commander in Chief?. In presidential form the Obama camp released the following, “As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to. This song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics.” Yeah the song was just that rough. But this time , unlike the Jeremiah Wright situation, I didn’t even question Obama’s move. This statement had to be made, he had to make it known that as a Pro-American Presidential Candidate he had to detest this “noise” from Ludacris, even though it fully endorsed him, and probably got some Luda listeners even more “crunk” about Obama.
I make no assumptions, this was a disappointing moment and decision for Obama, but it had to be done. He had to seperate himself from Ludacris and this song. When in the past Obama was proud to say that Ludacris was on his Ipod playlist . In 2006 he met with Ludacris to discuss the empowering the youth of the country. Now don’t get me wrong, I too enjoy listening to Ludacris because he is a vicious lyricist and he does have a conscience (his work through the Ludacris Foundation and the YouthAIDS “Kick Me” campaign), but does that discount his sometimes misogynist lyrics. Again we have the issue of balance and maturity. Sometimes we have to make tough decisions when we are on our journey of change. With that it forces us to make the hard choices and separate ourselves from people and situations that we were once proud of. Don’t be mad at Obama about this statement because this is how a presidential candidate gets his “Grown Man” on. When’s the last time you had to make a hard decision and change what you demand from the people in your society. All we have is time and opportunity.November 2009 M T W T F S S « Jul 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Pages
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