I'm back and I read all the replies and there's too much to respond to.

To those that just don't care or refuse to accept that its insulting, or insist that local dialects make it okay to use, or who have real hatred toward all Arabs because of the problems in communities where some own stores and shit... and especially to those who support the war in Iraq...:

Fuck you.


But to those who responded with understanding or brought genuinely dialogical arguments about the issue...
I appreciate it to death because when I posted about this a few years ago I got nothing.


I think the most significant post that deserves more disscussion was Chike's when he said:


"I think Common is trying to represent a certain location (the ghettos of Chicago) through certain eyes (black residents of these parts). His usage of the term can therefore be linked to the common usage of the term by those whose viewpoint he is offering.

QUESTION: Since, on my account, replacing "ay-rab" in the song with "arab" would have more cosmopolitan implications and be less provincial (in terms of reppin a certain vision of the world), is it possible that making such a change would in a way compromise the aim of the song?

A large part of the issue here is whether Common is (knowingly or unknowingly) denigrating Arabs. I would suggest that some of the distrust I referred to IS present here, because of the common issue in black neighbourhoods of other peoples' economic benefit at black folks' expense. I do not think Common included the line on some "We are the world" stuff (i.e., to represent diversity in the ghetto) though I think it would also be going too far to think of the line as vicious or hateful (i.e., calling for Arabs to "get their dirty asses out of the hood"). In fact, the song as a whole aims to be descriptive rather than judgmental, giving you a feeling of resignation as far as Arabs making that money offa black folks eating food that Common as a vegetarian wouldn't."

If I agree with this, which I almost do, I would have to accept Common's usage of the slur in artistic expression, and I would basically have to just stop listening to Common because he doesn't really make the music for me.

Is this the case?

Does he write strictly for Black Americans? Do I not have the right to complain when I'm offended by his lyrics as an Arab?