Eminem a Racist?

A few weeks ago Benzino claimed that he had evidence to prove that Eminem is a racist. I thought it was going to be some obscure battle audio where Em says "nigga" to his competition or something. Turns out it is much worse than I thought (listen to the audios). MTV reports:

The Source magazine owners Ray Benzino and Dave Mays held a press conference to play a recording of the MC delivering racial slurs.

On the first of two tracks purportedly recorded in 1993, an audibly young male, who says he's Eminem raps, "All the girls I like to bone have big butts/ No they don't, 'cause I don't like that n----- sh--/ I'm just here to make a bigger hit."

The second track, made in 1988, featured Eminem rapping about a black girlfriend he broke up with. "Blacks and whites, they sometimes mix/ But black girls only want your money, 'cause they dumb chicks," he rhymes. Later in the freestyle Em raps, "Never date a black girl, because they only want your money/ And that sh-- ain't funny."

Eminem doesen't deny that the second track is his, but explains:

"The tape they played today was something I made out of anger, stupidity and frustration when I was a teenager. I'd just broken up with my girlfriend, who was African-American, and I reacted like the angry, stupid kid I was. I hope people will take it for the foolishness that it was, not for what somebody is trying to make it into today."

What do I think?

Let's put this into perspective. First off, Benzino is pathetic. His influence has helped to ruin The Source magazine, which has become a joke in journalism and an embarrassment to hip-hop as a whole. Frustrated with his own floundering "rap career," he gained publicity from a feud with Eminem last year, and was lyrically beaten to a pulp by Eminem's diss track responses. It's hypocritical for him to call Eminem a racist when he encouraged his own white emcee to use the "N-word" on a song! If that's not enough, then consider that Benzino is trying to nail Em on lyrics that disrespect Black women yet he boasts on his own song:

Who the f*ck chicks think they are?
M-A-D-E pulls b****es cards
Hookas better meet us at the bar

So yes, Benzino is a lame. But that doesn't change the fact of what Eminem said on those audios. I'm disappointed that my hip-hop blog brethren have decided to focus on how stupid Em's accusers are without addressing the issues that this event brings up. Here are some quick thoughts:

1. Kill the double standard. Hip-hop embraced Eminem even though he made songs dissing his mother, killing his wife, and beating up gays. Should we be offended now that this White emcee has said something many other Black emcees have said without reprimand? Listen- lyrics that degrade are not cool, no matter who's saying them. We grown folks within hip-hop need to take a second look at what we condone in our songs. We've spent so much time defending ourselves from the powers that be that we've neglected to police ourselves. I'm not saying hip-hop is destoying the Black community or America or something dumb like that. But dag...you have to admit that 90% of the stuff pumping out of the industry is emotionally immature. Let's at least have an alternative for all of us over the age of 15.

2. Everyone says foolish things. If someone recorded my private conversations with my friends they would find me saying some really ignorant things about every race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. You can only judge a man on the whole of his character, not by a few sloppy words that were meant to be private. The Bible has wisdom on this. Ecclesiastes 7:21 says

"Do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you".

Those are just my sloppy thoughts. Here's what other people are saying:

Jay Smooth- "Em will surely take a hit in the short term, and he'll have to put in a lot of work cleaning this one up. But in the long run I'm sure he can work past this. Though I would never trivialize his usage of the N word or disparaging Black women, this really does sound like a frustrated, ignorant little kid who is in a very different place mentally than Em is today."
Supernova Juice- "I thought all you had to do was buy one of his albums to figure out he was a racist mysogynistic homophobe."
Micheal of Bad Samaritan-"Scott also said, and I’m not making this up, that “we've got to treat this the same way we treated Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant, O. J. Simpson.” Okay, let me get this straight now because I must be confused, Tyson is a convicted rapist, Kobe is an accused rapist, and Simpson is an accused double-murderer. Eminem should be treated the same way these guys were treated?"
Psynorm- "i honestly think this is hilarious. not only are these retards gonna show up on eminem's next record (while giving him the ingredients he consistantly uses to DOMINATE the rap industry), but they're trying to claim this is somehow significant. he influences millions of people, and now he's racist...now we'll have millions of racists on our hands. jesus christ people, could you be any more desperate to latch onto to this guy's fame?"
Pink Rabbit- "Maybe no one cared that he's violently homophobic, but now that it's come out that he's racist, too, people will stop liking the bastard..."