Mr. Wyman,
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Yet, you seem to use your column to congratulate yourself for such understanding, as you simultaneously ridicule the rappers and fans who took issue with your mention of anti-Semitism. In fact, your opening statement implies that they revealed a lack of intelligence for countering your remarks–that they were “otherwise pretty smart.” Bill, your values of mental prowess don’t apply to any cultural environment you choose to drop in on. It wasn’t stupidity that you observed at the panel discussion, and it probably wasn’t merely a tolerance of anti-Semitism. Perhaps you were unwittingly exposed to someone’s frustration with yet another privileged know-it-all suggesting to them how to run their show.
If that isn’t what you were doing at the panel, you certainly display such arrogance in your column.
Racism is displayed when white music critics, writing for periodicals supported by some of the more affluent advertisers, write to their predominantly white audience about blacks and black culture and the perceived problems within that culture and effectively leave black writers with very little chance to reach a white audience at all.
