# Rapper Common invited to the White House **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683 "2011-05-12T18:07:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/41 "2011-05-17T05:19:45Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Well that would explain why he was honored by President Obama. Let me see if I understand your comment correctly. You believe that Obama is actively seeking out artists and celebrities who have created something having to do with murder, in order to honor them for that act (the act of creating something with the subject of murder or murderers). Do I have your meaning accurately? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/42 "2011-05-17T05:23:14Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Also didn’t Nugent once boast about dodging the draft back in the '60s? He said he shit his pants for a week before he showed up at his draft board. That was the same interview where he said if he had gone, he would have killed American soldiers in their fox holes. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/43 "2011-05-17T05:43:14Z")
In addition to his “Adopt an Underaged Fuck” social program Nugent’s also gave up two of his illegitimate kids for adoption and neglected to pay child support for a third but condemns homosexuality as immoral. Other than the fact he’s conservative (in the publicly calling Obama a ‘piece of shit’ who should be killed with Nugent’s machine gun sense of the term) what exactly does Hannity find to recommend him? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/44 "2011-05-17T06:04:21Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Your contention is that Obama is pro-murder, and hence seeks out people who sing about it to the White House? No I’m suggesting he’s too stupid to retract an invitation when a fly show’s up in the ointment. “oops, turns out we over-booked, sorry. Catch you some other time”. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/45 "2011-05-17T06:41:39Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > No I’m suggesting he’s too stupid to retract an invitation when a fly show’s up in the ointment. “oops, turns out we over-booked, sorry. Catch you some other time”. Other people might consider that integrity, given the entirely dishonest nature of the controversy. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/46 "2011-05-17T07:38:36Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > No I’m suggesting he’s too stupid to retract an invitation when a fly show’s up in the ointment. “oops, turns out we over-booked, sorry. Catch you some other time”. Because I’m sure that like every other PotUS he micromanages every solitary function and knows every single person who comes through there in general, but particularly something as important and vital to national security (not to mention, the children) as a gathering of poets. I’m surprised he had the time to oversee the bin Laden attack considering the enormous responsibility of making sure that no offensive poets were coming onto White House grounds, especially after Robert Pinsky and Maya Angelou got into that knife fight last year. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/47 "2011-05-17T07:57:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > …especially after Robert Pinsky and Maya Angelou got into that knife fight last year. I would pay good money for a video of that. This is such manufactured bullshit, I’m sure that organic farmers would reject it if it were offered as fertilizer. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/48 "2011-05-17T10:51:57Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > No I’m suggesting he’s too stupid to retract an invitation when a fly show’s up in the ointment. “oops, turns out we over-booked, sorry. Catch you some other time”. Whats that have to do with Bruce Springsteen? ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/49 "2011-05-17T14:38:15Z")
How many of these Fox News Douchebags TM even knew who this guy was before this faux-controversy erupted? I’m willing to bet very few them. Anyway, does anyone know how his record sales are doing this week? Too bad he doesn’t have a new album coming out, because nothing would warm my heart more than to see his sales figures shoot up because of this bullshit outrage. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/50 "2011-05-17T14:51:24Z")
It’s doubly bullshit because Common has built his whole career on being the opposite of all the gangsta rap nonsense that they are laying on him. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/51 "2011-05-17T16:42:49Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > It’s doubly bullshit because Common has built his whole career on being the opposite of all the gangsta rap nonsense that they are laying on him. Exactly. This was [Ta-Nehisi Coats](http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/i-feel-like-a-black-republican/238741/)’ response to this whole bullshit outrage: > [@](#): > > But Common is the dude in the Gap ad. His mother is a teacher. Shirley Sherrod is a victim of white supremacist terrorism, who lectures black people on seeing their own prejudice. Eric Holder went to Stuyvesant. Michelle Obama’s mother was a homemaker. Her parents forfeited a full athletic scholarship to send Michelle Obama’s brother to Princeton. They used to watch the Brady Bunch together. > > If Common is disturbing, Shirley Sherrod wants to discriminate against white people, MIchelle Obama is obsessed with Whitey, and Barack Obama has a hatred of white people, then the rest of us are in real trouble. When you talk about “nonthreatening” this really is the best we’ve got. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/52 "2011-05-17T16:56:02Z")
Yeah, that’s where the racist element creeps into this discussion. I don’t know much about Common and I won’t pretend to, although I _do_ know something about the people who are up in arms about him on TV. What I do know for sure is that if you’re that convinced that the Obamas and Shirley Sherrod are harboring extremist anti-white racist views, you’re clearly afraid of black people. The Obamas both went to Ivy League schools, which is supposed to be more or less the whitest possible thing anyone can do, and Michelle Obama’s background in particular is very middle class. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/53 "2011-05-17T17:26:11Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Anyone watch the debate? I can’t yet since I’m at work, but I’m wondering what those who don’t have dogs in either camp think especially. The transcript is [here](http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/transcript/bill-oreilly-and-jon-stewart-debate-common-controversy) (or [here](http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/print/497) for the whole thing on one page). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/54 "2011-05-17T17:47:01Z")
Stewart pretty well dominated O’Reilly, both with calling him out on the dishonesty of saying that Common “ceberates a cop killer,” and with all the examples of other artsist who have done songs about people they thought were wrongly convicted of killing cops and still being invited to the White House. There is no question that the Fox News screamers only see “black rapper” and assume he’s gangsta rap thug because that’s what they think _all_ rappers are, and that O’Reilly really had no idea at all of what kind of themes Common really talks about. O’Reilly tried to move the goalposts after Steart “booya’d” him on Bono, but I’m not sure I really understood the distinction he was trying to make. It looked to me like he gt caught off guard a little bit and didn’t know what to say. O’Reilly brought in Bernie Goldman afterwards to be a lapdog and tell him he won, but even Goldberg couldn’t do much more than sniff about Stewart criticising Fox News as a whole for racializing the issue, when it’s really only a few guys like Hannity (who O’Reilly never tries to defend, by the way. he just tries to quickly change the subject whenever any of his guests bring Hannity up). Bernie and Billo then agred that Fox has a wide “diversity” of opinion, while Comedy Central (which is not a news channel and has very little political content at all outside the the Daily Show and Colbert) does not. Reality still has not penetrated the Fox News Green Zone. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/55 "2011-05-17T17:48:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yeah, that’s where the racist element creeps into this discussion. I don’t know much about Common and I won’t pretend to, although I _do_ know something about the people who are up in arms about him on TV. What I do know for sure is that if you’re that convinced that the Obamas and Shirley Sherrod are harboring extremist anti-white racist views, you’re clearly afraid of black people… The guys who are up in arms about him on TV don’t care if he’s black or not. They are using whatever convenient scare tactics they have to demonize Obama and the Democratic party. When Juan Williams was fired Fox had no problem bringing up the fact that NPR fired its only black correspondent. They only have a problem with black liberals, not black people in general. None of this excuses the fact that they use racism to vilify black liberals. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/56 "2011-05-17T18:05:06Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Bernie and Billo then agred that Fox has a wide “diversity” of opinion, while Comedy Central (which is not a news channel and has very little political content at all outside the the Daily Show and Colbert) does not. Reality still has not penetrated the Fox News Green Zone. Yeah, I don’t quite get this criticism. Comedy Central is a fucking comedy channel. Most of their content outside of Stewart/Colbert consists of stuff like Tosh 2.0, Workaholics, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and raunchy American Pie and National Lampoon’s flicks. Or perhaps this is O’Reilly’s way of admitting that his program is really a comedy show. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/57 "2011-05-17T18:07:29Z")
So basically is went like this: Bill: lalalala Obama is a radical lalala. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/58 "2011-05-17T18:28:10Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I can’t imagine Fox would get pissed if Charlie Daniels. Ted Nugent or any other rabid right wing entertainer went to the White House. Sure Daniels tells black jokes at his concerts but he doesn’t use the N word, and he said proudly that the small town south isn’t going to put up with no dang gay pride march anytime soon (one gay group offered to do one if at the same time Daniels would **sing _The South’s Gonna Do It Again_ at a concert in Harlem** - he didn’t respond), but he’s old and white so that’s okay. Don’t know much about Chuck Daniels, but I think this is kind of funny in a thread (rightfully) lambasting the right for taking a song snippet out of context. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/59 "2011-05-17T18:30:02Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > The guys who are up in arms about him on TV don’t care if he’s black or not. They are using whatever convenient scare tactics they have to demonize Obama and the Democratic party. Of course. That’s why I made a general comment about people who fall for these scare tactics and not Fox News specifically. Fox News doesn’t really care what they say as long as it keeps people watching. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683/60 "2011-05-17T19:20:18Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] O’Reilly brought in Bernie Goldman afterwards to be a lapdog and tell him he won [/QUOTE] O’Reilly also claimed victory after a debate on the existence of God with Richard Dawkins. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rapper-common-invited-to-the-white-house/581683.md?page=4)