Glenn, Kanye and Me

By now most everyone is aware of the recent claim that Glenn Beck made regarding President Obama on the Fox News Channel. Needless to say, I found this rather outlandish considering Obama's maternal family, the people in his administration, and his success in drawing significant support from voters of all ethnicities when he won the election. My first thought (and probably second, third and fourth thoughts as well) was that the Fox News executives should demand that he apologize for his incredulous statement under threat of dismissal. The fact that he apparently not only hasn't apologized but hasn't even been suspended is rather telling and shocking to me.

But then I remembered what Kanye West said about George Bush following Hurricane Katrina. I have to admit that at the time I wondered whether there was more than a kernel of truth to that accusation, conveniently ignoring the prominent positions that Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice each held in the Bush administration. In retrospect, I believe that Bush was not a racist but perhaps a classist. But getting back to Kanye, I wouldn't have been surprised if he suffered a Dixie-Chicks style backlash which would have effectively ended his career. Instead, these days you can't go more than ten minutes on a pop station, let alone an R&B/hip-hop station, without hearing Kanye on a track. Even I must admit that I have enjoyed some of his songs over the last few years.

So it appears that Glenn and Kanye, despite their inflammatory accusations of Presidential-sponsored racism, will each continue to have successful careers due to the support of fans who ignored if not even believed these falsehoods. And that, I believe, truly makes for a sad state of affairs here in America.