A lunchtime browse of social media reveals the latest shocking Trendy “news”. Apparently, Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr., a rapper in his late Forties, is obliging CNN with something to report that is worthy of headlines. “Snoop Dogg” so the story goes performed a mock assassination of President Trump in a music video. But there are problems with this story. First, it is being reported on social media and CNN, which are both more prone to fiction these days. Second, “Snoop Dogg” is hardly more than a footnote in the encyclopedia of work that black Americans have contributed to culture and the world at large. Louis Armstrong, BB King, Stanley Turentine, and Jimi Hendrix are just a few who have a world audience. As this is Black History Month in the U.S., I learned more about the astronauts, inventors, and scientists without whose work, industry and the world would be poorer.
And then you have an angry man. Twenty-five years ago, his music and associations were very polarizing in expressing the rage of black youth. But not all black youth. Fifteen years ago, my mentors in the Navy who taught me how to excel, how to strive for and achieve success as a Chief Petty Officer and then a Senior Chief Petty Officer were two of the finest human beings I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, Master Chief Cryptologists Banks and Logan.
I attend my church with men and women of all colors, races, and origins. And among our fellowship are some of the men who have made an indelible stamp on my Christian Discipleship. So when this angry – but extremely wealthy ‘gangsta’ – man panders his drug use, anti-social attitude and downright criminal (I think any reference to assassination of a President however veiled is a felony) behavior as freedom of expression, I can only have pity on him. There is a Judge that will ultimately decide his fate. I hope for his soul that he can be salvaged while he still is breathing.
Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories 