Blacks Offended by "Rappin' Rove"

Oh brother. By now you've undoubtedly seen the video of Karl Rove performing as part of an impromptu rap group at last week's Correspondent's Association Dinner in Washington (you can see it here). Needless to say, this white man can't dance.

Believe it or not, there are members of the black community who are so desperate to be offended that they are actually angry about Rove's performance for its perceived racial insensitivity:

The YouTube-bound rappin' debut of MC Rove “rocked the house” and even “stole the show,” according to the next day’s papers.

But in the days since, there has been growing unease over Karl Rove’s rap and the media blitz that followed. Among those who weighed in online, including several black journalists, many cringed at the performance and the media’s rave reviews of it.

“My first reaction was… uh,” said Tavia Evans Gilchrist, 27, a journalist in Washington. She saw the clip from the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner on NBC’s "Today Show."

A popular listserv for the younger members of the National Association of Black Journalists (which this reporter is a member of) was abuzz early Thursday morning: Was it funny, offensive or just stupid?

Some compared the sketch to a modern-day minstrel show, others tried and failed to muster indignation against it and still others wondered whether the critics were simply over-thinking.
“It ticks me, but I don’t know how to address it,” Evans Gilchrist added.

For blacks to be offended by a white guy rapping - even if just a part of comedy sketch - would be equivilent to me being offended because a black violinist is playing Bach. After all, isn't classical music "white music"? It's nonsense, of course.

Rap music is not the exclusive property of blacks (though after Vanilla Ice one wishes it was). And one of the things that make this routine funny is the sight of someone doing something so totally out of character, whether rapping, singing playing a sporting event. Had Rove gotten down on one knee and sang "Mammy", maybe you could argue that this was a direct assault on blacks. But a bald white guy dancing without any evidence of talent is hardly an indictment of black culture.

Maybe the blacks are offended because they realize that when you really examine rap you realize that your average performance does look pretty silly regardless of the racial make-up of the performers.