Popular sentiment in the Black community says - if one is not an ideological/ political adversary there is always hope for his reform and acceptance into the ranks of the credible.
Add Snoop Dogg to a long list of "Hip Hop Voice Of The Street Pirate" artists who's potty mouthed lyric or specific death threats to Black people or calling Black women out of their names has not permanently tarnished their image. In fact, some of our people are more proud of the millions that they now command and the influence they have on the masses.
As part of his reform - some people who defend Snoop Dogg will point to his sponsorship of a youth football league in Long Beach California and then ask me - one of his critics - "What have you done for the poor Black kids in LBC or elsewhere? At least Snoop Dogg is working with them".
Such a highlighting allows them to look past the fact that Snoop and other "Hip Hop Voice of the Street Pirates" (HHVSP)have made their millions by trafficking in the messages which talk about the dysfunction in certain segments of the Black community or who's words when heard by people within shape their thinking and are replicated in the streets. A incestuous, circular reference indeed.
Today we have several potty mouthed HHVSPs being recruited by official political campaigns to leverage their connection with the young voters, influencing them to come out and vote for the Democratic candidate in question. Despite the fact that more killers of Black people have been found with these voices upon their iPod than the words of Rush Limbaugh or the Tea Party rally - there is no consequence, it seems, for a Democratic candidate to be linked to the destructive forces of the HHVSP.
Might this be the "double standard" that Dr Laura talked about yet most who analyzed her commentary sought to avoid? I think so.
Having just watched Melvin van Peeble's documentary "Classified X" where he reports on Hollywood's past use of minstrels and buffoons for the entertainment of White people I can't help but see SOME of these Hip Hop acts as an evolved version of these predecessors except now their role is to portray thugs and pimps as a mischaracterization and molestation of their proportions within the Black community.
We are not going to see any of the corporations that call upon Snoop Dogg being boycotted by "The Color Of Change". Snoop Dogg is no particular political threat to their interests.
Instead the best that we can hope is that no individual who is a threat to the progressive political orientation of the Black community gets caught on tape lypsyncing the exact lyrics of Snoop Dogg's next album. As with Dr Laura - he doesn't say "The N-Word" he uses the word "Nigger" in his commercial content.
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