Larry, I started to respond to this as well, but you basically covered (and very well) the points I wanted to make. It's very comforting to me to see a "middle-aged White guy" base his opinion on THE FACTS rather than just a knee-jerk reaction to just the mention of the word "rapper". In fact, such a "knee-jerk" reaction might suggest something a little more sinister than what we're willing to own up to. We all like to think that we are fair, unbiased and non-judgemental in the way we perceive people from another culture, but the historical indoctrination that most Whites AND Blacks have had to endure growing up in this country (and many others), makes this very difficult. It doesn't mean that you're a bad person; it's just that that 'gut reaction' tends to kick in long before we have a chance to think about something rationally.

We'll get there.........just probably not in our lifetime.

chas


BTW, nice blog. Keep up the good work. Nice place to exchange ideas. I had to respond HERE because I coundn't respond in your comments box (I don't belong to any of those 'options').