My point is to get people to take a deeper look at the music industry and the issues affecting music...to basically be able to see things for what they are.
- Byron Crawford aka Bol
BET Bob Johnson Has Discovered Another Way To Set Blacks Back posted on 2008-01-14 01:41:14
I bet Lupe Fiasco thought he was making some hip Down Town anti-establishment statement by throwing his worthless and uninformed endorsement behind Hillary Clinton before the Iowa caucuses. And now, look who has joined him in shameless form�BET billionaire, Bob Johnson.
Being from Chi-Town, folks might have assumed�wrongly�that Lupe would be stumping for the Illinois Senator. But no. Here�s what Lupe told Danica Dow, of SOHH.com:
�I don�t believe in voting on that level. But I want Hillary to win,� he said. �Obama doesn�t really impress me like that. It�s not a shot at him but some of his agendas, the bombing of Iran and all that stuff. He ain�t gonna do nothing but perpetuate the nonsense that all the Presidents before have done, and what Bush is doing now.�
Never mind the fact that none of the Democratic candidates�including Obama�have said they supported �the bombing of Iran� as part of any agenda, no "thinking man�s" rapper should be so blatantly and arrogantly ignorant. But Mr. Fiasco is an otherwise talented young thinker who was simply playing the part of contrarian for �cool� points. Despite the Iran �bombing� misinformation and the hometown endorsement of his political foe, Barack beat Hillary in Iowa. No harm, no foul. And I�m sure he has learned from this gaff and will think better of his pseudo endorsements in the future.
Mr. Johnson, on the other hand, ought to know better. In his latest blacks-be-damned move, Bob played campaign hit man for Hillary, performing an ugly act that amounts to the political equivalent of black on black crime.
This comes just as Clinton is being criticized by many blacks for her take on President Lyndon Johnson�s role in the Civil Rights movement. She was trying to make the point that it takes a leader like LBJ (here, played by Hillary) to enact the vision set forth by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (here played by Obama?). To be sure, LBJ was a valid--if reluctant--partner in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Still, a twisted analogy in the context of this race.
But that silly debate laid the backdrop to Bob Johnson�s entr�e. He was seen on the stage in South Carolina with those puffy eyes and that self-hating swagger. �I am frankly insulted,� BET Bob said, �that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood �and I won�t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book.�
Okay, if you haven�t heard by now, Obama has admitted to experimenting with drugs as a youngster in his Memoir �Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,� which was published in 1995. In the book he outlines his search for identity and his journey to connect with the life of a father he never really knew. Along the way he talks of his days as a community activists in Chicago, his time in Harvard, and his earlier partying days.
It�s no �gotcha� moment, for sure, more innocent than Bill Clinton�s �I didn�t inhale� controversy. For Bob Johnson to bring this up as if it should be part of the political discussion and for Bob to imply that Barack is highlighting race is blatantly timed near the upcoming South Carolina primaries where Clinton�s standing is sagging.
You�d think Bob wouldn�t care to traffic in race after cashing in on BET to the tune of $3 Billion. When called on his obvious Obama drug use allusion, Bob released a statement that said this:
�My comments today were referring to Barack Obama�s time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.� [Bloggers note: It is worth noting that he is lying here]
What Hillary doesn�t understand is that Bob Johnson has as much political capitol among black folks as Clarence Thomas, Stanley Crouch or Alan Keys�the other black Presidential candidate in the race. Any African-American voter knows that if Bob Johnson is for you, you can�t be for the blacks. She would have done better to trot out Lupe Fiasco to come to her defense. At least he would have had some appeal among black people.
But sending out any black minion to do her bidding was a sly tactical move. For a woman, Senator Clinton is doing a fine job of acting like �The Man.�
This is a new low for Bobby. to allow himself to be used as some black attack dog to talk about drugs in this presidential race when he would sell T&A; all day on that network is worse than the pot calling the kettle BLACK! Stop it black BOBBY just stop it!
My point is to get people to take a deeper look at the music industry and the issues affecting music...to basically be able to see things for what they are. 
