Obama Takes on Rappers

The Associated Press’ Jim Davenport reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, challenged rappers who use degrading language in their songs yesterday.

"We’ve got to admit to ourselves, that it was not the first time that we heard the word ‘ho.’ Turn on the radio station. There are a whole lot of songs that use the same language. . . . We’ve been permitting it in our homes, and in our schools and on iPods," Obama said at a fundraising dinner for the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus in Columbia.

The remarks come two days after Don Imus was fired by CBS and MSNBC for using the phrase "nappy-headed hos" to describe the Rutgers women’s basketball team.  Imus met with the team on Thursday to apologize following a week of press conferences, apologies, and sharp criticism from Al Sharpton to Al Roker.

"If it’s not good for Don Imus, I don’t know why it’s good for us. If we don’t like other people to degrade us, why are we degrading ourselves?" Obama asked.

Obama referenced his own daughters, who he described as "tall" and who he hoped might one day get basketball scholarships.  "I don’t need somebody on a radio station degrading that. I think it’s fair to say that there are a whole bunch of young rappers who look like us, who use the words that Don Imus does, who are on our radio stations."