Conservative Lampooning Of Common Illustrates Conservative Fail Towards Black America

Among conservatives who have more mainstream racial attitudes, there is a constant bemoaning of why it is that black America is not more receptive to their message. After all, Republicans are critical of welfare programs that carry with them perverse incentives of family destruction and dependency. Many conservative outlets, when talking about this issue, sound just like Malcolm X, who sang the same song about black dependency. Many conservatives are likewise far more endorsing of education reform that would help stir up the stale pot of American public education, a pot that has not served blacks or other minorities very well.

Conservatives are the most vocal about the destruction of the American family over the last 40 years and, while the utter collapse of the American family can be seen in all aspects of society - from working white women who are the statistically most likely group to be childless to poor white women who suffer from large rates of teenage pregnancy - family decline is at its most obvious in black America. Tyler Perry's excellent sweep of conservative tinged films show this aspect of black American society in a serious light while also providing positive archetypes.

With all these possibilities available, why do conservatives fail to win with black people? Here is a key example why:

Why? "Some of Common's poetry could ... raise some eyebrows among those who might find cop-killing and racially-tinged or misogynist language beneath the Office of the Presidency," Shawn Millerick at the New Hampshire Journal wrote. He goes on to quote from Common lyrics: "Tell the law my Uzi weighs a ton ... I hold up a peace sign but I carry a gun," and "Flyer say Free Mumia on my freezer.”

Gun reference? Yes. Grounds for being banned from the White House grounds? We’re going to go with no. As the Atlantic reports, Obama is far from the first president to host an artist whose work includes references to controversial – or even criminal – topics. Not to mention, anyone who is actually familiar with Common’s career knows that he’s renowned for writing socially and politically conscious lyrics and eschewing the gratuitous violence for which rap is often criticized. And the first word used to describe his work is always “positive.”

Anyone who knows anything about hip-hop knows that Common is the centennial "positive" or "conscious" rapper. So, if Common isn't welcome, we should assume that no one in hip-hop is welcome. (If you are about to suggest Will Smith, being the non-cusser that he is, think again.) If it were R&B singers being invited, accusations of sexual depravity would be thrown.