That's sort of the point, yeah. It's not that white people have a responsibility to agree with the message of black rap, it's that white rap fans have a responsibility to not be ignorant of black struggles.

The issue is that white rap fans don't seem to care about black people and are truly ignorant of their struggles, almost as if they revere the "coolness" of rap, but don't think black voices have any importance.

Yes I think the article is saying that if you're a white fan of black music (specifically the music where they share their stories of struggle and pain) and the messages of that music leaves no impression on you... then that's odd, and deserves some inspection.

I don't agree that that's the article's premise The article is pointing out that simply enjoying black music isn't the same thing as supporting black people. And there's a problem when the majority of rap artists that white Americans listen to are communicating the pain and struggles they face, but this leaves no impression on the many white fans.

I love articles like this; I learned quite a few interesting tidbits about the Galapagos islands (and Darwin).

Also, who knew cactus spines were actually leaves? haha

"Competition" is a great description of reddit. Without strict moderation the top comments in any popular subreddit are usually jokes barely related to the topic, probably because that's the easiest way to get upvoted and noticed.

Reddit made me extremely defensive about commenting because of the responses I got. Every time I saw my mailbox was red, I panicked.

I mostly stuck to non-political subs and discussions, but even commenting on something mundane would lead to people attacking me and being rude.

I started prefacing everything with, "this is just my opinion, but..." and other placating words. Really dumb when you think about it.