I was reading on the web today that Nas wants to name his new album “Nigger.” In fact he wanted to give his last album that title but was not able to. My first reaction was good for him. It has been a long time since we had a substantive debate about what is and isn’t allowed in art. Also the Root.com* makes a good point that Nas calling his album “Nigger” will bring the issue to more people than Harvard Professor Randall Kennedy could with his book “Nigger.”

After reading about Nas’ album I started reading about Obama’s fiery pastor Rev. Wright. Then my mind started messing them together and I thought, “Oh God, the stupid media is going to make Obama comment on the title and when Obama tries to defend free speech and avoid condemning the album’s title, we will have another stupid racial shit fest,” -though from Nas’ standpoint this will help sell more albums.

What’s interesting about race in this campaign is that the media is asking Obama to be black and white…dare we call it “Bla-ite.” They were actually talking about this point on CNN’s wonderful Sunday morning show “Reliable Sources,” (the only main stream Meta-News show) where they discussed the tinges of racism in calling Obama articulate and how for a black man this is surprising, while for a white man this would be expected.

This need to be “Bla-ite” is seen in how Obama is not allowed to channel dominant Black cultural themes such as Malcom X or a southern style preacher, like Rev Wright. Yet he can’t be white either. For example, say Obama condemns Nas’ album and says he does not support the use of that word even if it is in an attempt to overcome the word and transcend it through ownership. This is exactly what a white politician would be able to say with no harm. For Obama however, the media will see him as pandering to whites, or condemning his roots, or being against free speech. Worst of all they will spend another week talking about race. It is a lose-lose situation for Obama, and he has no control over it. And when it happens it will be sad because we will waste another week of news worrying about the skin color of our politicians instead of talking about a war that has now killed 4,000 American troops, a health care system in shambles, the current recession, or the polluted planet.

*theRoot.com is a really awesome, intelligent, though provoking, well done online magazine about African American issues and partners with my favorite media source slate.com