November 29, 2017

Rapper Joyner Lucas' new video released today is racking up millions of views, and for good reason. It's damn good.

Source: CNN

It opens with a white man in a "Make America Great Again" hat ticking off racist trope after racist trope:

How African Americans are lazy, aimless, shiftless. How there's a double standard when it comes to using the N-word.

The scene is from rapper Joyner Lucas' music video for "I'm Not Racist," and there's no doubt, it's uncomfortable viewing. Profanities prevail; misconceptions fly.

But get to the second verse, and the song takes a surprising turn -- when a young man in dreadlocks gets his chance to respond, to rebut the generalizations, to recount being stopped by the police and rebuffed for jobs.

There's a reason "I'm Not Racist" is racking up millions of views online. It's driving a conversation about the state of race relations in America. A really, really, really raw conversation, and just how far apart blacks and whites are in how they see things in this country right now.

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