When Will It Change?
I have this fear, it goes like this: that 50 years from now I'll still be (barely) alive and when I watch the political news - or drink it, or however we're ingesting it by then - it will feature black leaders and (occasional) black candidates decrying the anti-intellectualism and the naughty language of predominantly African-American culture, the same as Obama is doing today, and the same as we've been hearing in critiques for some time now, especially from people with money, power, influence.

So far as I can tell, the only person whose life was improved by Bill Clinton's "Sister Souljah" critique was Bill Clinton. I haven't heard of one person's life turned around by Bill Cosby's rant.

I'm starting to think that critiquing from afar is not the answer. One day, someone will actually get about the business of changing the situation on the ground, as they say. I hope I'm still alive to see it. As far as I can tell - 2007 looks and sounds alot like 1987 in terms of race relations and the problems plaguing the poorest in America and affecting the vilest of our pop culture, so often an easy target of exploitation by those seeking to promote themselves.