President Barack Obama and First Michelle Obama are planning to celebrate American poetry with a notorious hip-hop artist famous for celebrating the killing of police officers and one notorious cop killer in general.
Obama “will celebrate American poetry and prose with a gathering of poets, musicians and artists at the White House next Wednesday night,” according to the Associated Press. One of the poets who will attend is Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. who goes by the name “Common,”
Fox News reports. Adding to the likely political fallout of the event is the fact that Common is a very vocal fan of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former minister and a well-known firebrand who caused him political trouble during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Obama likely met Common at Trinity United Church of Christ, where both men were members. Several of Wright’s sermons caused a firestorm of controversy during the 2008 presidential campaign due to their caustic, racially charged, anti-American tones. One sermon in particular caused Obama a severe headache – the one in which he blamed America for Osama bin Laden’s terrorist attacks. “America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he said.
Some of Common’s poetry could also raise some eyebrows among those who might find cop-killing and racially-tinged or misogynist language beneath the Office of the Presidency.
“Tell the law my Uzi weighs a ton … I hold up a peace sign but I carry a gun,” raps Common in one appearance that was posted onto YouTube.
“Flyer say Free Mumia on my freezer,” he raps in another. Mumia Abu-Jamal is an incarcerated former member of the Black Panther Party who was convicted in 1981 for killing a Philadelphia police officer. Agitating for his release from prison has become a cause for many leftwing activists.
Common named his daughter after Assata Shakur, a Black Panther who was convicted of first-degree murder 1977. She escaped from prison and exiled to Cuba. The FBI recognizes her as a domestic terrorist.
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