Thursday, May 06, 2010

Short, balding, white, rich guy tries to get down wit it. Incongruous?

I'm a big fan of Ben Horowitz and whatever PR firm he's gotten to reprint his blog entries on every website on the planet, but I find one of his writing quirks "amusing". He leads off his blog posts with quotes from rappers. His most recent post led with the following (and I quote precisely):

I spit what I feel
Like a n*&^@#! reading Braille

Am I rappin’ or talkin’ s$&^)!t

I can’t even tell

—Kinfolk Kia Shine


Now, I agree with the points that he makes in his post.  However, that rap lyric has absolutely nothing to do with the blog post.


Unless Ben has been visiting a tanning salon significantly more powerful than the one that Rep. John Boehner frequents, he's white. In fact, unless he's dramatically changed from the time that we worked together at Netscape, he's a white, short, balding, rich, short Jewish guy. (As am I, except for the rich and balding parts, and I have one less short than him.)


So here's my challenge, Ben: Every time you feel the urge to add a rap lyric to one of your blog posts, instead why not contribute $500,000 to a charity in East Palo Alto or Oakland that really works with African-Americans and is trying to do some good. You'll feel much better, and so will your readers.

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