Ludacris/Obama Boo-boo and Cartoons

Hoo boy.

This is why entertainment and politics don't mix, people: Rapper Ludacris met with Obama in Chicago and came away inspired enough to write, record, and release a song about his Obama-feelings. In "Obama is Here" (see YouTube video above or here) Ludacris talks about how much Obama likes him, calls Hillary a "bitch," says McCain should only occupy a chair if he's paralyzed, and calls Bush, essentially, a retard.

As Jay Smooth points out, Ludacris is just doing what he always does, praising his friends and insulting his enemies. But this is politics, not hip-hop, and a stray word here can sink an entire campaign. By being stupid, Ludacris has put Obama in an impossible position, one in which he has to repudiate the rapper's remarks, without alienating the rapper's public.

It's, interestingly enough, very similar to what happened with the New Yorker cartoon controversy, where The New Yorker was also just doing what it always does--satirizing a national political situation using a trenchant cartoon--but managed to stray into someone else's territory, where the rules are different.

In this case, they were wandering into the realm of critique of media portrayals of race, an area previously reserved to people of color groups. The main objection to TNY satirizing media portrayals of the Obamas stated that their cartoon was racist. But this is patently absurd. The real problem with the cartoon was that white editors and writers were making comments about a topic that they'd previously ignored--and that only blacks had commented on before.

But this is what's happening all over with Obama's amazing candidacy: the borders between entertainment and politics, between identity politics and national politics, and between media critique and public critique, are breaking down. Whoda thunk it? We just thought Obama would be revolutionary in pictures!