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Health & Fitness

Blog Post: Come On... Common at The White House?

Common, the White House and Partisan Politics

Well, here we go again. Another partisan attack by partisans.

I started with those words because that is what this “controversy” is about. The right going after their nemesis by showing that he is what the base believes: “A radical, white-hater who wants to get rid of whitey.”

So when the White House invited Jill Scott and Common for a celebration of poetry, guess what, people and media outlets who never heard of these people, all of a sudden knew all the words to their poems.

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This is where you on the left are supposed to recognize that this is all about politics. But many of you still hang on the race stuff. “It's racist.” “It's because they’re black” and on and on.

Well, here's a little history. Back in 2003, Laura Bush wanted to have a symposium and salute three poets: Walt Whitman (gay, radical), Langston Hughes (African-American, freedom fighter) and Emily Dickinson (female). The poets who were selected to perform were reportedly going to perform anti-war poems. And the left said this would be appropriate.

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So, back and forth they went (nobody on the right said anything about Langston or the gay guy, therefore proving this is all about politics) and finally Bush canceled the event.

Now, going forward: I love President Barack and First lady Michelle, however, I will also spend a better part of my blogging on Patch.com trying to show you all that it is intellectually lazy to see everything through the lens of race and not what it really is-politics.

Editor's Note: For full HuffingtonPost.com coverage of the 2011 White House Poetry Reader, go to: Outrage Flare as Michelle Obama Invites Common to White House.

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