In an exclusive interview with The Ed Show’s Michael Eric Dyson on Friday, legendary rapper Nas discussed the state of hip-hop, Occupy Wall Street, racism and his thoughts on the President’s job performance. His recently released 10th album, “Life is Good,” topped the Billboard’s 200 chart. It’s his sixth No. 1 album.
Dyson asked Nas how he thinks Obama has done so far.
“I think he’s still that guy who cares about this country. And cares about the people in this country," he said. "He just stepped up into the biggest job in this country…he has a big job. I salute him for taking that job, but now he’s gotta handle it."
“So far, I’m still at the edge of my seat waiting. And it’s coming to that moment where there’s another election coming up and I’m still waiting to see what happens and how he handles his handle. That’s basically where I’m at,” he said. “Of course, we’re still in a messed up place economically. That’s not his fault, can’t blame that on him, but something needs to happen.”
Nas is no stranger to the world of political punditry. In a now-famous feud with Bill O’Reilly after the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007, O’Reilly called him a “gangster rapper who trades in violence.”
Nas responded, “He’s a racist. Everybody has a marketing plan; his marketing plan is racism…the people he represents are Republican, older, a generation that has nothing to do with the reality of what’s happening now with my generation.”
After Hurricane Katrina, Nas joined forces with Colorofchange.org and brought a petition against Fox News protesting the network’s allegedly racist portrayal of the Obama family.
Dyson asked the rapper if he’s seen any positive change since then. Nas said there’s still a lot of arrogance and ignorance, still a great need for change – but he’ll be on the front lines and ready to help:
“It was a great thing to see Barack Obama come into office when he did come into office, and before he got there just all the hate, I couldn’t take it. I mean, I’d do it again. The minute I see too much ignorance coming out of these people, these ignorant people, I’m stepping up again. I have a voice, and I’ma be heard.”
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Black America, as well as other America minorities, can't understand the hatred coming from bigots whom claim to be patriotic, love this country, but can't stand the color of our skin.
Those of us forced to suffer the bigotry of old White men want the silent majority to stand and be heard. Ignorance and racism are taught, allowed, and encouraged in America! Our politicians interfere in the day-to-day live of China as if it were their duty to do so, and the Chinese are right when they say: Clean your own backyard before you can assume the right to chastise us!
Nothing symbolizes the hatred of a Black man like the childishness of the 112th Congress! A Republican Congress gave Bush everything he asked for in bringing this country to its knees, but can't find the wherewithal to support the Black man making a difference now.
Barack Obama has done so much with so little for so long, the Republicans now want him to do everything with nothing forever; and they sit and wonder why its so hard for a Black man to succeed in America.
Now that one is asking for it righty? Why? That Avatar?
Also, I think those who have suffered the bigotry of this country have the most educated right to talk back about it. As a woman I've seen far too much of it. As a person who has brown enough skin to often be taken for some foreigner when I travel it is equally disturbing to me to be picked out of a line for extra scrutiny.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. PRESIDENT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4SLSlSmW74
I was born in 69 and the only thing I remember still being segerated was the doctors office. I served in combat with hispanic blacks and whites. I dont see it around me are the people I associate with. I just guess IM not aware of the racism because it not around me. However I have seen reverese dicrimination my entire life. So basicaly even though I personaly had nothing to do with the past Im effected because Im white. My parents were sharecroppers and did farm work, but I got no black farmer check because Im white. If I was black I could have got one. I could go on and on about stituations where I was decrimanted against because Im white, but overall I like this country so Im staying.
Only because you ignore it. You don't want to admit it. It's has been there all this time and you choose not to open your eyes and ears.
I guess Im just naive but I know we didnt have it in my unit in the army. We fought side by side with no problem.
Combat is a new world. Everybody looks out for everybody. The way this country use to be. We didn't have it on the battle field.
Then I'd say you were lucky if you got to side step bigotry. Yes it does work both way, but over the centuries it has been white men who ruled every one and that Included women. Have You ever read the "Pillars of the Earth"? It was not a good time for most people who lived in Europe, especially in England......
When the White Man took his ships to Africa and treated Blacks as chattel, to be captured and sold into slavery was not a pretty thing. How would you like to be treated? Keep that in mind when you look at other people. Treat every one well and don't make things about them and issue. Too ugly, too poor, too short, too tall, too white, too shabby, too dirty, too fat. So many prejudices creep into your thinking. Too bad.
When I was growing up, there were often no restrooms for blacks, no resturants, some business refused to let them come into their businesses. If they were allowed on a bus they had to sit in the back.
We are all sisters and Brothers under God.
Just the normal bigotry from the right to excuse their heritage on wrong doing. That good old child reasoning others did it to so why should we get the blame. Here is a clue over 100 years of second class citizenship after the slaves were free, the lynchings for looking at a white woman, the murders and disenfranchising of black voters. Don't think that just because the people of the US voted a black man president that excuses whites for their dirty deeds past present and even now.
Keep lying to yourself one day you might actually win an argument with yourself.
You sir are as stupid as they come!
True the party did have that stance but men like Kennedy, Johnson, and Barry Goldwater changed all those things. Goldwater essentially took over the party and aligned it with white supremacist forces, much to the dismay of George Romney Goldwater's longterm political nemisis. You, me and everyone else know the those who are white supremacists of today will be more likely to vote for right wing candidates.
No that is not really true or possible but most of those people are dead to begin with second can one not renounce racist beliefs? It is interesting that you would like to cast all white democrats of today as the racists white supremacist/future neo nazis purely for also being democrats while at the same time attacking those whho would portray white people in general as racist purely for being in the same category as past racist individuals..........the GOP will constantly bring up that past but that was then this is now. If you wish to call white democrats or all democrats white supremacists perhaps you should show some blatantly white nationalist democratic affiliated material or show neo-nazi groups supporting democratic candidates overwhelmingly, or how you can be an anti-black racist while supporting a half black candidate, or perhaps you can explain why the democrats overwhelmingly win minority voters.......
Oh wait a little bird is telling you can't do that. See it's hilarious that you want to talk about the early half of the twentieth century and pull your anecdotes from that period but no mention of today, no talk of the twenty-first century. You want to talk about 40....well actually it's more like 50 now....years ago well I got plenty from this election cycle alone!
The neo-nazi group Stormfront officially endorsed Ron Paul
Right wing aligned birtherist acolytes like Donald Trump questionn the president's citizenship to this day with little to no condemnation from the national party leadership
Newt thinks that apparently Obama has a "kenyan anti-colonial behavior" issue. Are you trying to tell me there's some logic and sense to that which doesn't play on racial animosity? I mean "anti-colonial"? Really, I'm pretty most people would say they aren't "pro-colonialism".....RFLMAO.....colonialism LOL!!
The constant argument, the mainstream argument, of the right that black and all minority voters only vote for democrats because they "want free stuff" implying the negative stereotype that these individuals as a community are lazy or duplicitious. You may wish to believe that doesn't matter to those who aren't white but it does.....and the entire insensitive denialist attitude is why the right has no real minority support
The former senate president in AZ recently recalled from office was shown to have blatant white nationalist messages within his official campaign literature.
The effort to identify Obama or Michelle Obama as muslim plays on racial animosity as noted by the fact muslims are Americans too and thus it wouldn't matter if they were. However clearly the use of "muslim" here is to be an insult based around the sound of Obama's name.
The effort to portray the Obama's as radical anti-white racists found on the right is another example. How do we know? Well the assertion that someone who is half white hates white people like the single parent who raised them falls flat on its face as totally ridiculous. If Obama is such a racist why is it that most of the people he works with are white? And no people who are racist do not hide that nor to they willingly associate with people of racists they hate. When was the last time you saw a klan member in business with a black guy? The shear reality is that if you have to ask whether someone is a real racist the answer is probably no.
Michelle Bachmann and her use of the word "tar baby" in talking about Obama's domestic energy policy. Which granted was not intended to be raicially offensive but really? Really? Shouldn't she know better by not to use that term ever? Now of course Bachmann is long in the tooth and short in the neuron but that type of thing isn't helping your image either.
I could go on for sometime but I've said enough already.
Indeed every civilization in the history of the planet has engaged in slavery at one point or another. It is also true that contrary to popular belief the majority of slave raiding in the african territories was done by european aligned african kindoms like the Dahomey empire not by europeans. Having said all that these facts do not absolve any culture of the sin of slavery.
No another popular misconception but modern Egyptology has shown that the Egyptians use of slaves is greatly exaggerated. In fact the Egyptians engaged in very little slavery and slave labor was not used to create the valley of the kings near Giza. They used conscript labor which yes was forced and similar perhaps to slavery but not the same thing. The officials would go place to place to gather militia or in this case workers from each settlement by royal decree taking the number of workers the village or township was required to send however after the project was completed these people where taken back to their homes. Once they finished they were free to go about their business and were even sometimes given a form of pay for their service.
So the Egyptians basically used indentured servants and there is no evidence to suggest that the Hebrews were enslaved in Egypt or even lived in Egypt to begin with.
Well well well surprise surprise surprise once again the daily caller at work. Here is a clue the KKK endorses the GOP does that mean the GOP is supported by the KKK, of course not, but hey got to have that fake outrage or you have no one to aim your racist bigotry hatred at.
slr has not posted one source Although some of his past history was true, he failed to defend the present stance of "MOST" of the right. Their silence stands for a lot when they let this kind of talk continue with out call in their friends in crime on it.
Peace and love, and emperor obama, save the republic, all rolled into one.
re-reg.
Notice his trade marks.?
Ho-lee cow....
re-reg .....56panhead and others.
gotoleft....righty.
Mom you can't show sources that don't exist
Peter Bremilow spoke at the CPAC convention and no one on the right said anything. Bremilow according to the SPLC is a white nationalist.
Kris Kobach, author of SB1070 is a "nativist"(sovereign citizens bashing all immigrants) and connected to the Conservative Citizens Council which is a white nationalist front group
You can't run from your recent racist statements in your party. The KKK is on your side whether you like that or not. You can't deny it.
Obamas mama is white as rice.
Blunt smokin' rap singers are the last people we need making comments about the economy and politics.
But this is dyson MO, the thinks we should be teaching kids how rap/hip-hop in school.
Just what ever parent wants their 10 year old doing, learning how write and sing songs about braking the law.
This crap about Obama's mother is nothing but bull. Racists don't give a damn about the color of someone's mother. They just care about the color of your skin. If you're black, that's all they care about. They don't ask for your genealogical table and make a careful, reasoned analysis about your heritage.
Racists aren't intelligent. That's why they're racists.
Tread softly my dear.....and try to go to the left. It is nice over here.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. PRESIDENT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xpeami317s
Yeah to bad you tea bagged republicans decided to put that criminal Mittens up for election.
Invent yourself for the occassion?
Why don't we just stop Racism......period!
It starts at home.
daily caller a rightwing rag......don't think I could give it any credence.....just like the joker in Bat Man. Make it look like the occupy are commiting crimes by infiltrating the peaceful goups....listen to fake noise and you will believe any thing. My experice tells me you are just a righwing nut job, come on to the msnbc web sight to spread propaganda. Look at all the ugly words you came up with to describe liberals. You need some peace and love in your life.
Sorry but fake outrage, it isn't the movements fault that not everyone that shows up is there for the right reason. That would be like blaming the universities where Ted the GOP's raising star Bundy scoped out victims for Bundy's actions on or near campus.
hi gotohell-I see you're off and running with the idiocy.
I guess you have to play to your strengths.
Apparently, you're on the wrong thread.
apparently, he came here with the announcement that liberals are racist and he wants to convinces us he is right. And he has been unable to do that.
This blog is not about the occupy, although I see you also have Some prejudice there. It is about racism being alive an well even in this day and time, and have we learned anything from the issue? you posted some old history and tried to place blame. You didn't really prove that it hasn't changed today. I gave you some information, and you don't want to believe it so you disregard it and say I'm desperate. Desperate to do what. Prove that your are not absolute right. I'm not planning to roll over and play dead for you. Sorry.
ChickfilA Kiss-In, Hollywood: The Pictures http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/08/03/chick-fil-a-kiss-in-hollywood-the-pictures/ … … … via @PJMedia_com
Jane, those who will, will protest in their own way. That is what we get when we try to impose our own beliefs on others.
BOL said by a guy who supports a worm like Mittens so much for his moral superiority.
And we see the racism sprout out without a bat of an eye. Mittens is superior to no one, he was born wealthy and used his wealthy to create more wealth with his vulture business practices. That Mittens has yet to tell the truth is rather clear as Mittens flip flops more then a carp on dry land. The only lies are the ones you are spewing.
You posted so of course you are lying because that is all republicans know how to do.
No we are tired of tea bagged republicans with their ego trips who just repeat the same Reagan lies over and over and over. Reagan like Mittens was never known for truth or honesty, but you tea bagged republicans sure do adore yourselves of the Reagan myth. I mean really your lame attempts at trying to white wash the GOP's record of the last 100 years or so shows you for the bigot you are coming off as.
SuperBowl champ BurgessOwens calls it like he sees it, tells blacks to dump #democrat party. http://anewvoice.net/featured/96-burgess-owens-says-america-needs-a-new-coach.html …
HAPPY BIRTHY DAY BARRY......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIBdKVyGIi8&feature=related
Stop the lies and division. your type of flamer is a disgrace to the American People and this country. Sounds as if you are the one who spreads the hate. SLR, what is your problem. Sounds as if you don't want us to discuss the topic of racism, so you accuse the writers here of any other ugly crime you can think of. Why are you showing such bitterness.
TM a banned re reg name of panhead.
Right another words you are going to continue to lie but we already knew that. Funny how you think you are something special but your not every tea bagged republican has posted the same nonsense before and were banned when the mods got tired of them.
How much they payin' you BOY, to come on here and spout your Riech-Wing CRAP?
This man has ZERO credibility. I'll just stick to the 70, 80's classic rock.
http://www.alternet.org/story/153819/republican_racism_is_an_air_raid_siren,_not_a_dog_whistle
tea party and the right
AlterNet / By Chauncey DeVega
240 COMMENTS
Republican Racism is an Air Raid Siren, Not a Dog Whistle
Republican candidates are overtly signaling that whiteness and American identity are intertwined.
January 19, 2012 |
On his MSNBC show Hardball, Chris Matthews called out Newt Gingrich and other Republicans for what he described as their "dog whistle" appeals to white racism during the South Carolina debate on Monday night.
He was correct in identifying the work that racism does for the Tea Party GOP and its candidates in their efforts to win over white conservative voters. However, Chris Matthews was too generous and kind. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and other Republican candidates are not engaging in subtle dog whistles to their faithful , where racism and white racial anxiety hides in the background, masked and hidden by other language.
Definitions matter: dog whistle politics are based on a signal or cue to the in-group, and one so subtle that those not in the know will overlook it as no more than quixotic
For example, during the 2004 election, President Bush's mention of the infamous Dredd Scott Supreme Court decision had nothing to do with African Americans and slavery. Rather, it was a wink to a rabidly anti-choice conservative Right-wing audience that Roe vs. Wade would be overturned by his administration.
In 2008, McCain-Palin featured a negative campaign ad which borrowed from the movie The Ten Commandments and suggested that Barack Obama was the Anti-Christ. If one was not part of the Left Behind Jesus Camp Christian Nationalist Dominionist crowd, the visuals and narrative of the commercial were odd, bizarre, utterly strange, and devoid of context. The ugliness of these symbols and metaphors were so covert, that they made sense for those outside of the targeted audience only after Time magazine thoroughly deconstructed the campaign ad and its malicious intent.
In 2012, Republican candidates are using overt signals, what are for all intents and purposes blaring air raid sirens and signal flares that race, whiteness, and American identity are deeply intertwined. The appeals to white racism by the Tea Party GOP during the primaries are not background rhythms or subdued choruses. They are the driving guitars of Blue Oyster Cult's " Godzilla," the chorus of Jay-Z's "99 Problems," the opening moments of the Notorious B.I.G's "Kick in the Door," or the flipped samples of Justice's "Stress" . You feel it. You know it. To deny the obvious is to close one's ears to a driving drum line and cadence that travels up through your shoes...and to your bones.
How else can a fair observer excuse away Republican arguments that blacks are lazy parasites , whose children should live in work houses and pick up mops and brooms to learn a work ethic, that "illegal" immigrants should be killed by electric fences, or Muslim Americans should be subject to racial profiling, marked like the "Juden" of Nazi Germany?
In all, the Tea Party GOP's campaign for the presidency rests upon marshaling white anger and rage at The Usurper, a perpetual Other, and one not fit for the presidency by virtue of his birth and skin color--he who we know as President Barack Obama. If Birtherism is not based on this calculation, on what else does it rest?
Race matters to the Tea Party GOP. It matters overtly. And it matters to the white populists of the Republican Party without apology or subtlety. This leads to the following practical question: how do we separate the subtle dog whistle from blaring conservative racism? What are the elements of the racial appeal? How can we identify it so that reasonable folk can neuter and castrate it? Is this even possible?
Knowing is half the battle . To that
For example, during the 2004 election, President Bush's mention of the infamous Dredd Scott Supreme Court decision had nothing to do with African Americans and slavery. Rather, it was a wink to a rabidly anti-choice conservative Right-wing audience that Roe vs. Wade would be overturned by his administration.
In 2008, McCain-Palin featured a negative campaign ad which borrowed from the movie The Ten Commandments and suggested that Barack Obama was the Anti-Christ. If one was not part of the Left Behind Jesus Camp Christian Nationalist Dominionist crowd, the visuals and narrative of the commercial were odd, bizarre, utterly strange, and devoid of context. The ugliness of these symbols and metaphors were so covert, that they made sense for those outside of the targeted audience only after Time magazine thoroughly deconstructed the campaign ad and its malicious intent.
In 2012, Republican candidates are using overt signals, what are for all intents and purposes blaring air raid sirens and signal flares that race, whiteness, and American identity are deeply intertwined. The appeals to white racism by the Tea Party GOP during the primaries are not background rhythms or subdued choruses. They are the driving guitars of Blue Oyster Cult's " Godzilla," the chorus of Jay-Z's "99 Problems," the opening moments of the Notorious B.I.G's "Kick in the Door," or the flipped samples of Justice's "Stress" . You feel it. You know it. To deny the obvious is to close one's ears to a driving drum line and cadence that travels up through your shoes...and to your bones.
How else can a fair observer excuse away Republican arguments that blacks are lazy parasites , whose children should live in work houses and pick up mops and brooms to learn a work ethic, that "illegal" immigrants should be killed by electric fences, or Muslim Americans should be subject to racial profiling, marked like the "Juden" of Nazi Germany?
In all, the Tea Party GOP's campaign for the presidency rests upon marshaling white anger and rage at The Usurper, a perpetual Other, and one not fit for the presidency by virtue of his birth and skin color--he who we know as President Barack Obama. If Birtherism is not based on this calculation, on what else does it rest?
Race matters to the Tea Party GOP. It matters overtly. And it matters to the white populists of the Republican Party without apology or subtlety. This leads to the following practical question: how do we separate the subtle dog whistle from blaring conservative racism? What are the elements of the racial appeal? How can we identify it so that reasonable folk can neuter and castrate it? Is this even possible?
Knowing is half the battle . To that
Rover on Mars!!!!
USA USA USA!!!
http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mars/curiosity_news3.html
USTREAM.com Curiousity.cam
http:/ /www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
my grand nephew, Clay, writes this report. Has more on the mars space vehicle.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-10/nasa-building-solar-shield-protect-power-grids-space-weather
He writes articles for Popular Science.
http://www.popsci.com/?q=category/popsci-authors/clay-dillow
Rod:
I am white and I don't understand it... we finally have, after 8 years under the Bush administration, an intelligent, thoughtful man in the white house. He is cautious about his decisions... no knee-jerk reactions. I fully trust his handling of the office of President... I'm no expert, and certainly no economist but I see things slowly getting better. If we stay the course and re-elect Barack Obama, we will be much better off.
Antha, you forget, that all people of any color aren't intelligent enough to accept differences and prefer to carry a grudge for one reason or another. I always felt that carrying around hate, was too big of a burden to carry. What you say is based on intelligent thought. Not bending to the fear and propaganda of others.
It is ashame, that some will do anything and say anthing to defend the fact they are bigots.