From the WSJ Opinion Archives

by JAMES TARANTO
Monday, April 16, 2007 11:09 A.M. EDT

Today's Video on WSJ.com: Mary O'Grady on Hugo Chavez's antagonizing foreign oil producers.

Bad Rap
Barack Obama, are you reading this? If so, hi.

The reason we ask is that on Friday we faulted Obama for piling on Don Imus while carrying on friendly relationships with "gangsta rap" stars who trade in the same racist and misogynistic terminology that got Imus defenestrated. Later that day, the Associated Press reported this:

Obama on Friday questioned the way some rappers talk about women in songs, saying the lyrics are similar to the derogatory language used by embattled radio host Don Imus.

They are "degrading their sisters. That doesn't inspire me," Obama said of some hip-hop artists when a man in a crowd of about 1,000 questioned him.

He doesn't appear to have criticized his friend "Ludacris" by name, but it's a start.

Some have suggested that it is proper to hold black rap stars to a different standard of morality and etiquette because of their race. Here is a comment we received from reader (and frequent critic) John Longfield:

While some of your points re Imus are "thoughtworthy," I think you're demonstrating purposeful naiveté relating to blacks' offense at Imus's slurs.

If you were a parent, you might be able understand how it's perfectly acceptable for me to knock my kids, yet egregious in the extreme for you to do it (even if you may be right).

In the same vein, I can criticize my country with impunity and, while you may disagree with me, my bet is you won't be near as offended as when a Frenchman shares identical critical observations.

Globalization may be on the upswing, but it sure ain't gone that far yet.

Our concern, though, is not for "blacks' offense" per se, but for simple decency. Surely misogyny is not acceptable simply by virtue of being intraracial. If a man calls a black woman a "ho," is it any less indecent because the man happens to be black? If it isn't obvious to you that the answer is "no," consider the question in reverse: If a man calls a white woman a "bitch," is it more indecent if he is black?

The racial element of all this is more complicated. It is true, for instance, that if a black man calls his black friend "nigger," the word has a totally different meaning than it would have coming from a white stranger. But rap music is not "all in the family"; it is disseminated widely beyond the black community. "Today 70% of hip-hop is bought by white kids," musicologist Arthur Kempton told the Boston Globe in 2003.

What these white kids are buying, in the words of Stanley Crouch, is "the most dehumanizing images of black people since the dawn of minstrelsy in the 19th century":

Pimps, whores, potheads, dope dealers, gangbangers, the crudest materialism and anarchic gang violence [are] broadcast around the world as "real" black culture.

Why does a genre that embodies ugly stereotypes about blacks have such appeal to young whites? Our surmise is that it has less to do with race than with sex. Adolescent males yearn to be men--but the aspiration for manhood has few ready outlets for expression in a society that has embraced the notion that the differences between the sexes are but social constructs. So boys and young men are drawn to the crude, stylized masculinity of gangsta rap.

Still, if the perpetuation of antiblack stereotypes is bad for blacks--by which we mean not merely offensive but objectively harmful--then gangsta rap has to be the most baneful cultural force vis-à-vis blacks since Jim Crow. Not only is gangsta rap vastly more pervasive than old-fashioned white supremacy; it is far more insidious, because it is presented as the black community's image of itself.

Our society rightly anathematizes white racism against blacks. It is patronizing, if not racist, to suggest that whites, merely by virtue of the color of their skin, lack the moral authority to criticize black racism against blacks.

No Relation to Imus
"Don Ho Dies"--headline, Pacific Business News (Honolulu), April 14

Second-Class Newspaper
Someone called Harvey Fierstein weighs in on the New York Times op-ed page:

America is watching Don Imus's self-immolation in a state of shock and awe. And I'm watching America with wry amusement.

Since I'm a second-class citizen--a gay man--my seats for the ballgame of American discourse are way back in the bleachers.

Yeah, it's true, the Times op-ed page isn't what it used to be. But count your blessings, Harvey--at least you're not stuck on TimesSelect!

Ho Hum, a Peaceful Demonstration
From the Associated Press:

Thousands of Iraqis marched peacefully through the streets of Basra on Monday, demanding the provincial governor's resignation over the poor city services, despite calls by top government officials a day earlier to call off the protest.

Some 3,000 demonstrators gathered near the Basra mosque, then marched a few hundred meters to the governor's office, which was surrounded by Iraqi soldiers and police officers.

"We call for the resignation of the Basra governor," read one banner carried by demonstrators. Others waved Iraqi flags and chanted "No, no to the governor!"

Protesters dispersed peacefully after a few hours, and called for a three-day sit-in in front of the governor's office starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday. If their demands are not met within three days, the sit-in could be extended, they said.

This seems like a small story, but such an event would have been unthinkable five years ago--and in most other countries in the region, it still is.

A Heartfelt 'I Don't Care'
Slate's Tim Noah responds to a column by Bob Novak in which Novak breaks the years-old news that Valerie Plame was not a covert CIA agent. Says Noah, "Nobody cares, Bob."

Well, nobody except Tim Noah, who devotes a whole column to it. It reminds us of that old Phil Collins song, "I Don't Care Anymore":

Well you can tell ev'ryone I'm a damned disgrace
Drag my name all over the place.
I don't care anymore

You can tell ev'rybody 'bout the state I'm in
You won't catch me crying 'cos I just can't win.
I don't care anymore
I don't care anymore

There's no apathy like strongly felt apathy!

British Journalists Side With Terrorists
Britain's National Union of Journalists "has voted at its annual meeting for a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a protest against last year's war in Lebanon," London's Guardian reports:

The vote on the motion was taken after it was split from a larger motion that condemned the "savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel" last year. . . .

The motion called for the end of Israeli aggression in Gaza and other occupied territories.

Um, well, except that Israel has withdrawn from Gaza and Hezbollah provoked the Lebanon war by kidnapping Israeli soldiers and firing rockets at Israeli cities. In any case, what is a "journalists" organization doing taking sides? As the Telegraph's Toby Harnden notes, "It takes some skill to do something that is at once inane, ineffectual, counter-productive and insulting to the intelligence. But that is what the National Union of Journalists has managed to do."

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that "a Palestinian group calling itself the Al Tawhid Al Jihad brigade has issued a claim that it has killed BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston." Another BBC report says that the National Union of Journalists "has strongly condemned" Johnston's abduction--but it isn't boycotting anyone other than the Jews.

Ignorance of the Lawmakers
Oh, this is rich. The New York Times reports from Trenton, capital of New Jersey:

State senators from both political parties said at a hearing on Wednesday that they had been shocked to learn that they had voted again and again in recent years for measures that had left the state pension in great distress, and they faulted the state treasury for failing to explain to them the risks of what they were doing.

"I had no idea we were in the company of some of the same corporations that I have condemned for not funding their pensions," said Senator Shirley K. Turner, a Democrat from Mercer County. "And now, it seems, we're in the same boat, and sinking."

If lawmakers can pass laws without knowing their contents, how can any of us be expected to obey them?

Castro Death Watch
"Fidel Castro has 'almost totally recovered' from his illness and has resumed many of his duties as Cuba's leader, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday," the Associated Press reports from Caracas:

Chavez said at a news conference that the 80-year-old Cuban leader's improvement is clear.

"Almost totally recovered is the very reliable information that I keep receiving," Chavez said. "The reports that I have and that keep arriving speak of--and not only the reports but his own notes, his voice on the telephone . . . a doctor would say real recovery."

If Castro improves sufficiently, doctors expect to be able to pronounce him dead later this week.

That's What We Call Objective, Dispassionate Reporting
"Clouds Part for Obama's Appearance"--headline, Associated Press, April 15

An Anxious Nation Holds Its Breath
"Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) reopened the door to a possible 2008 presidential campaign during a book signing in Denver and then again, in an interview with 9NEWS," reports the station, whose call letters are KUSA-TV:

While answering a question from a viewer on the program Your Show about why he chose not to run, Kerry said he had decided it wasn't the right time.

"Could that change?" Kerry said. "It might. It may change over years. It may change over months. I can't tell you, but I've said very clearly I don't consider myself out of it forever."

A Kerry presidential run comes with considerable baggage, most notably his service in Vietnam, a highly unpopular war. But at least he doesn't have a reputation as a flip-flopper.

Hillary Clinton, Sexist
Phyllis M. Meek, who apparently is an administrator at the University of Florida, doesn't think women in politics get enough respect. Here's one of her complaints, outlined in a Gainesville Sun op-ed piece:

Another example of on-going sexism is the news coverage of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Why is she typically referred to as "Hillary" rather than Senator Clinton? Referring to a woman in a powerful position by her first name definitely is sexist. . . .

Referring to Sen. Clinton as "Hillary" is a not so subtle way of diminishing her importance as a very competent and intelligent elected female U. S. senator.

We went to Mrs. Clinton's campaign Web site, where the banner atop the homepage reads "Hillary for President." Links on the site include "Join Team Hillary," "The Vilsacks Endorse Hillary," and, our favorite, "Women for Hillary." Apparently the conspiracy to keep women down is so vast that Hillary--sorry, Mrs. Clinton--herself is in on it.

The One on the Right Wing?
"Bird Flies Into Engine of Cheney's Plane"--headline, WBBM-TV Web site (Chicago), April 13

Not Unless It Melts!
"Snow Won't Dampen Global-Warming Rallies"--headline, Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, April 13

Save the Planet, Eat Small Peaches
"Big Apple Produces Almost 1 Percent of U.S. Greenhouse Gases"--headline, CNN.com, April 11

The World's Smallest Violin
"Lobbyists Struggling After Democratic Win"--headline, Financial Times, April 13

Bankers Gone Wild
"Chase Leads to Chaos on I-10, Suspected Drug Runner Caught"--headline, KVIA-TV Web site (El Paso, Texas), April 10

This Makes Us Nostalgic for 'Beavis and Butt-head'
"Butte Blast Blamed on Leaking Gas"--headline, Billings (Mont.) Gazette, April 10

Its Decline Will Never Surrender!
"France Wrestles With Its Own Decline"--headline, Associated Press, April 14

Things We Wish Were True
"Study: Abstinence Doesn't Delay Sex"--headline, USA Today Web site, April 13

News You Can Use
"Experts Warn That Giving 110 Percent May Backfire"--headline, Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, April 16

Bottom Stories of the Day

  • "Attorney Makes Many Enemies"--headline, Washington Times, April 13

  • "Broken Pecan Factory Sign to Be Put Back Together"--headline, Natchez (Miss.) Democrat, April 13

  • "Luigi's Italian Pastry Shop Makes Cannolis"--headline, WTNH-TV Web site (New Haven, Conn.), April 15

  • "Anna Nicole's Diaries Fail to Sell"--headline, Associated Press, April 15

  • "Former Bush Landlord Decides Not to Sue"--headline, Associated Press, April 13

  • "Sheehan Calls for Activism"--headline, Omaha World-Herald, April 16

Minute Man
"A peace agreement between Israel and Syria could be reached within 35 minutes, former U.S. president Bill Clinton told the Lebanon-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper in an interview published Sunday," reports the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.

Bill Clinton was president for 4,207,680 minutes, which is enough time to broker more than 120,000 35-minute peace agreements. Granted, a man has to sleep and tend to other basic necessities of life, and the president has tons of responsibilities, so eight years isn't as much time as it sounds like. But Clinton's time wasn't that tight. Consider these footnotes from the Starr report:

135. Currie 1/27/98 GJ at 35-36 (testifying that Ms. Lewinsky and the President were in the Oval Office for "[p]erhaps 30 minutes."). . . .

136. Ferguson 7/17/98 GJ at 23-35 (alone for approximately 45 minutes). . . .

138. Fox 2/17/98 GJ at 30-38 (alone for approximately 40 minutes).

139. Bordley 8/13/98 GJ at 19-30 (alone for approximately 30 to 35 minutes). . . .

141. Byrne 7/30/98 GJ at 7-12, 29-32 (alone for 15 to 25 minutes).

By our count, that is between 160 and 175 minutes Clinton spent . . . well, at this late date there's no need to rehash what he was doing. Point is, if he had managed his time better, he could have arranged a peace between Israel and Syria, and who knows what other great things he might have accomplished in the remaining 125 to 140 minutes?

(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Roger Heinig, Bill Ward, Daniel Simon, Daniel Jackson, Michael Segal, Monty Krieger, Joel Goldberg, Frayda Levy, Monty Krieger, Kevin Hisel, Michele Schiesser, Steve Karass, Jeff Meling, David Weiss, Ross Firestone, Rod Pennington, Bryan Fischer, Dan Benton, John Williamson, Alan Utter, Josh Schultz, Scott Wright, Marc Young, Suzanne Smith, John Sponauer, Andrew Robinson, Don Hubschman, Ronald Marshall and Nathan Wirtschafter. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

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