NPR Host: 'Do Black Folks Really Use Stuff Like iPods'?

Your tax dollars at work, paying public radio hosts to ask if "black folks" are into iPods.

NPR's taxpayer-funded "News & Notes" program for April 17 tried to introduce a story on demographic advertising by awkwardly asking in a caption on their website, "Do national technology trends play the same way in the Black community?"

Or as host Farai Chideya asked, "Do black folks really use stuff like iPods as much?"

Chideya later referred to the popularity of the iPhone within the black community:

CHIDEYA: Well, you know what, I'm just waiting for the rap video where some new hit of the week is waiving his phone in the air and, you know, shouting out like you just don't care; then we'll know they've made it in the black market.

Because if you make it in the rap community, you have really hit the black market? Huh?

Technology analyst Mario Armstrong and Chideya also got into Apple's claim that it had sold its 100 millionth iPod as well as digital rights management, after taking an informal survey of “someone here at NEWS & NOTES” saying that when they go to their gym with mainly black clientele, “everybody's got their Discman.”