Did Obama not learn anything from the disaster that is Kwame Kilpatrick (Hip-Hop Mayor of Detroit)?  A lot of people understood the reference.  It simply wasn't very presidential.

Honey, I suspect that you "went crazy" a long time ago, long before you even knew of Obama and his "perfect moment" of pandering to the "hip-hop generation voter."

BTW, the preverbal 'brush off' is a lot older than any member of the "hip-hop generation" and goes back at least 40 years to my recollection. Why do you think he’s actually referring to hip-hop? Did he flash sign or wear droopy pants or something? Did he use quotes from popular hip-hop songs? Did he do ANYTHING besides the preverbal 'brush off'? No, he didn't. You, Madam, just assumed that he was referring to a hip hop song because you have little understanding of gestures and their origins. You think he was trying to connect with the hip hop generation when all he was doing is mocking it. Obama is playing you as the fool, and you play that part well.

Does the WaPo have a website for Anglo-Americans or

(your ethnicity here)-Americans?

Firstly, to call hip-hop "art" is ludicrous. Secondly, much like the words of his so-called "pastor" should be condemed out of hand and the "pastor" forever more shunned.  So should "hip-hop" music.  Any sane person would do both.  Not emulate the racist, hate-America, hate monger "pastor" Wrigth and the racist, hate-America, hate mongers Jay-Z and whatever his name is (emphasis on who cares). 

To me this is truly a "perfect moment" in that it further indicates what bambi is made of.  He sadly identifies with the low of his race.  Those that would seek hate and violence to further themselves.  But, hey, it's working!  bambi, Wright, Jay-Z and what his name are proof of it.  They are all millionaires many times over.  What a shame for America.  What a shame for the dimocrat party. 

Think about it.  Last time around the dims had the serial liar and philanderer.  This time around it is possible we will have the racist, hate-America, hate monger in our White House. 

How many times will this ground be tread by conservatives? And why are so many conservatives reduced to hysterics when hip-hop music enters the equation?

I am a conservative black who listens to hip-hop, and has enjoyed it for many years. And while I understand that a lot of this stuff is simply garbage, not all of it is and not all of it should be characterized as such. Personally, i like a lot of Jay Z's music and don't see anything wrong with Obama listening to it. And if you wanted to, you could easily understand that brushing the dirt off his shouler had nothing to do with being a "pimp", but is a symbol of moving past the people trying to hold you back. Heck, I have done it too...does that mean that I am a "pimp" too?

Further, with all of the things wrong with Obama and his candidacy, his association with Bill Ayers; his wife not seeing any redeeming quality in America until Barry was leading in the polls; the association with Mr. Wright; the embrace of the radical teachings of Saul Alinsky, and the blatant hypocrisy of telling college students NOT to seek corporate success(while neither of the Obamas took that route) Brent is wasting space whining about....what exactly? That Obama might listen to hip-hop music, and *gasp!* brush the dirt off his shoulder to connect with his audience? Isn't there something else Brent could have used his time and considerable talents to write about, instead of this insignificant tidbit? This just seems like a bit of a reach to me.

I don't see how Obama actually thinks he only has a few specks of dust on his shoulder when he's been associating with trash for 20 years. Maybe he should try shoveling off the mud on his back, side, front, middle, bottom, and top. I'm afraid after 20 years, that mud has now turned into cement. It's all over Obama. No matter how hard you try to brush it off, your fate has been set in stone.

Flashing gang signs and grabbing his crotch?

"That is, of course, ludicrous. Poverty doesn’t "cause" violent gansta rap anymore than road rage is caused by Toyota."

What do you mean? Are you suggesting that poverty doesn't lead to crime? And crime doesn't lead to violence? And violence doesn't lead to gangs? And gangs don't lead to gangster rap?

Of course, some gangs don't make gangster rap. Sometimes they break out into choreography and song about how great being a Jet is. Do you imagine that all gang life is like West Side Story, and gangster rap magically appeared on a CD burned in the Infernal Disc Drive of Hell back in 1994?

If gangster rap doesn't come from poverty, where does it come from? Kanye West was raised kinda middle class, and he doesn't make gangster rap. Common doesn't make gangster rap. There's a lot of rap that isn't gangster. Rap that is gangster tends to come from the poor people...

This is just shows how naive white people are. Hip-hop, rap in particular, is so demonized and villified by us that we just can't see through it to the reality. We think Hip-hop can be judged in white terms, we think we can compare it to Beethoven or Brahms, but we can't. We think because it's not an orchestra, it isn't music, which is a naive, childish and, ultimately, racist thing to say.

To suggest that there's no connection between poverty and gangster rap is like saying sex doesn't lead to babies. Hey, sometimes we have sex and don't get pregnant, but a lot of times you do. Sometimes poverty creates jazz. Sometimes whorehouses produce tango. But gangster rap was born in a culture very different from mine, and very different from yours. It is a reflection of a very real culture, and it represents very real lives. To write it off as "garbage" is to say to an entire group of people, "I don't care how bad your lives are; I don't want to listen."

To say poverty had no effect on gangster rap is childish and naive. It shows a severe lack of understanding about the world as a whole, let alone American culture. It came from an impoverished segment of America, and instead of heeding the cry for help, white Americans just saw it as proof that their prejudices were correct. Instead of saying, "Wow, we should do something about this," white folk just threw up their arms and cried, "It's those black people again!"

Understanding Hip-hop isn't about listening to a new kind of music. It's about trying to understand a huge segment of American culture. American experience. Let me emphasize: Hip-hop is AMERICAN, it is about AMERICAN people, it reflects AMERICAN lives. If you see Hip-hop as a bad thing, fine: but if it is a bad thing, it is a bad thing that AMERICANS made. It is a symptom of something. A good doctor, that cares about his patients, takes time to understand symptoms. Do you care enough about America to understand its symptoms? 

People here say they love America, but yet they can't take the time to actually try to understand how different people experience America. News flash, people: America isn't the land of opportunity for everyone. For some people, it's a really tough place to live. For some people, American culture represents intolerance and meanness. You'd know that if you cared about the country.

Did you ever think someone would tell you that your hatred of Hip-hop proves that you hate America? Well, it does. It proves that you hate a very large portion of Americans, because you just don't have time to understand their culture. It proves that you don't want to understand American culture. Instead of taking rap and trying to learn from it, trying to understand how people live, trying to understand how they think, you write it off as "garbage." And by writing off people's art as garbage, you're writing them off as garbage, too. Are you proud of that? Are you proud that you believe Americans are garbage?

With friends like you, who needs enemies?