Standing a few hundred feet from the Washington Monument today surrounded by several hundred thousand people, I stared at the mega-screen showing the inaugural concert. I watched Garth Brooks belt out an inspirational joint, followed by Usher. Next came out U2's Bono - and I was ready to leave.
I looked at the screen, my friends James and Tedra, and said, "why aren't Nas and Jeezy here?" (Tedra had been humming the hook to "My President Is Black" since we heard the song in the car on the way to the D.C. subway station)
I think they thought I was joking but I was being dead serious.
While Bono is a legend to some, he's not a legend to me. In fact, nothing he says about Africa really registers with me at all. He is a humanitarian who doesn't understand hip-hop politics the way Nas and Jeezy do - because he's not hip-hop. Hip-hop culture and its media - rap - are the voice of oppressed and disadvantaged youth worldwide, and despite helping Barack win, they're not being represented at the concert?
And if you think that I'm going to get Nas and Jeezy off that easy - I won't. The two are inaccurate in their description of Barack. In my world, a man whose father is from Kenya and a mother is from Kansas isn't black.
My president is gray.
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