Round One of Counterpunch, a new weekly Calendar feature of commentary and opinion. Leaders in arts and entertainment and related fields will offer their perspectives on vital issues of the day and their responses to columns and reviews. : Black Culture Still Getting a Bum Rap

Four hundred years ago, when black slaves were brought to America, Africans who spoke the same language were separated from each other. What we’re seeing today, with this insane campaign to intimidate rappers and rap music, is just another form of separating people that speak a common language. Too bad Nelson Mandela arrived here just in time to see this.

Chuck D. of Public Enemy has called rap the black network we never had, and I believe it’s true. Rap is the No. 1 selling form of music today. Rap has brought black kids a new sense of pride. Rap has brought black kids and white kids closer together. Thanks to rap, white kids are gaining a better understanding and a new respect for black culture. Rap has done nothing but bring people together. So, what’s the problem?

It’s the people who don’t understand the music or the culture that are creating problems. 2 Live Crew has been around since the mid-’80s, but as long as black kids were buying their records, nobody said a thing about obscenity. As soon as white kids in the suburbs started buying them, and MTV started playing them, now suddenly we’ve got a controversy. That hypocrisy makes me mad.

2 Live Crew sings about sex, a natural part of life. Advertisers use it every day. What’s next? Playboy magazine? How about Muscle and Fitness magazine? It has a girl in a bikini on the cover: Let’s bust her.

You can’t slap the right hand without slapping the left. Andrew Dice Clay is offensive to some, but not to all. Same with 2 Live Crew. If Clay were black, would they go after him? How about Eddie Murphy, or is he too powerful? And how much you want to bet that not more than a mile away from the record store raided for selling 2 Live Crew albums, there’s an X-rated movie theater or bookstore? Of course, I don’t think anything or anyone should be censored. But what we’re seeing today isn’t only censorship, but also clear discrimination.

Three weeks ago in this newspaper I told Robert Hilburn that rap is the most positive thing for black kids because it gives information and talks about society, about black history. But none of that matters to the police. Rappers are an easy target because basically we’re out there alone trying to defend ourselves. We never had much support from the music or radio industries. What if 2 Live Crew were on a major label like CBS, instead of a small black-owned independent label? What would’ve happened if the courts interfered with the record sales of major companies? I know if someone tried to take Bruce Springsteen or Guns ‘N Roses off the shelves, the whole music business would have united to fight.

As for me, I’ve been fighting my whole life. This is just one more obstacle, one more example of society trying to hold us back and steal the soul. No two rappers are alike in that we all have different ways of geting our points of view across, different ways of helping young people get it together. But we’re all together in soul. The title track on my new album, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted” has a few lines that go: As long as I was robbin’ my own kind/The policeman paid me no mind/Then I started robbin’ the white folks/Now I’m in the pen with soap on a rope. Different subject, same message.

This siege is not just a problem for rappers; it’s a problem for the whole country. If they succeed in banning 2 Live Crew, they’ll go after other rappers, and later other kinds of musicians or artists that someone happens to find “offensive.” They’ve opened the door with 2 Live Crew. I’d like to see it shut right back in their damn faces.