Barack Who?

Catching a glimpse into another human being's world view is sometimes startling or even alarming, but never dull.

An interview on the hip-hop site XXL Mag featured an interview with artist DMX. Jason Kottke at kottke.org picked it up and quoted this part:

Q: Are you following the presidential race?
A: Not at all.

Q: You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
A: His name is Barack?!

Q: Barack Obama, yeah.
A: Barack?!

Q: Barack.
A: What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Q: Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
A: Barack Obama?

Q: Yeah.
A: What the fuck?! That ain't no fuckin' name, yo. That ain't that nigga's name. You can't be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

Q: You're telling me you haven't heard about him before.
A: I ain't really paying much attention.

Q: I mean, it's pretty big if a Black...
A: Wow, Barack! The nigga's name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain't his fuckin' name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, "Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit" [laughs] "That ain't your fuckin' name." Your momma ain't name you no damn Barack.

This is an extraordinary example of how disaffected a person can get with our political system. DMX doesn't know and he doesn't care that he doesn't know.

As he goes on to say when asked if it wouldn't be important to have the first black president: "What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, 'Here you take it. Take my mess.'"

In case you were wondering, according to the Wikipedia, DMX is the sixth highest selling rapper of all time.