Am I a tool of The Man?
Not just because of the below entry, though that's true too...but today, I was listening to a particular rap song ("hereWEcome", or however you want to capitalize it, from the Strange Days soundtrack), and I was enjoying it. It's a very good song (and the Web appears to agree with me). Then I got to thinking, "You know, this song is written by people who don't particularly like people like me, about how they don't particularly like people like me." After all, through no particular fault of my own, I did have the luck to end up on the more-privileged side of the line that's being drawn here. So is it right for me to listen and enjoy a song like this? Or am I just being a poseur who doesn't -- can't, really -- understand the fundamental issues they're talking about? (The latter half of that is certainly true. When it comes right down to it, I have absolutely no conception of what life in the 'hood is really like, and I think that most of the people who haven't been there themselves don't quite grasp the difference, either.)

It's just a song, I suppose, so I don't worry about it too much and just enjoy the music, but it does make me think a little.

There's a much longer post about race in this country that I have to write (but then again, doesn't everyone, really?) but I don't have the time right now, so you're spared for the time being.