The Message vs. The Messenger

A lot of times when we hear someone we normally disagree with, or simply don’t like, speaking we have a tendency to only look for the faults in what they have to say. We do this in conversations and even when reading or watching interviews. Unfortunately, a lot of the time we end up missing out on great pieces of information because of this. Recently XXL put an interview with DMX up on their website that ended up being linked to in a lot of places because in it DMX claimed he had never heard of Barack Obama. Yes, that makes for a great headline (even if that part of the conversation was strangely buried in the article), but there were a few great points DMX made during the interview that most every missed because they were too busy cracking jokes about his supposed ignorance. This was a classic message vs. messenger situation, because when people don’t like the messenger they usually miss the message.

DMX will probably never be known as a genius, and by saying he hadn’t heard of Obama he didn’t exactly help his standing with a lot of people, but if those folks had taken the time to read through the entire interview they would have come across two fantastic points that largely went ignored. The first point DMX made was when the prospect of a black president was brought up. He said:

“What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, 'Here you take it. Take my mess.’”

NOBODY has gone into any depth discussing this idea that by voting in a black president we could be creating a scapegoat for an impending war and setting race relations backwards, rather than forwards. Nope, people would rather make jokes and call DMX names.

The second point that I felt should not have gone ignored was when X noted:

"The president is a puppet anyway. The president don’t make no damn decisions."

Puppet may be too strong a term, but how many celebrities backing presidential candidates right now do you think understand the concept of checks and balances? Call DMX crazy if you want, but for a guy who claims he has zero interest in the political system, and since he’s been convicted of a felony and therefore can’t vote I actually don’t blame him for his lack of involvement, he seems to know a thing or two. Admittedly, one has to get through some less than intelligent rhetoric to get to the good stuff, but if you’re already reading the interview why not read it all?

After the article came out message boards all over the net blew up with people making fun of DMX and implying he must be on drugs or suffer from a medical condition that causes him to act this way. On a handful of these boards I attempted to point out that X made the good points I just mentioned and we should at least take that from the interview. What both annoyed and disturbed me was that a number of sites (including XXL’s) didn’t approve of the comment I left and never posted it. Sites that approved of reckless bashing didn’t seem to want anyone to see that something thought provoking could be gleaned from DMX’s words. God forbid we start a rational discussion, nope, let’s just keep everything on a “that guy’s crazy” level.

The fact that sites weren’t allowing comments that put DMX in a positive light should be more than a little bothersome both to his label (for obvious reasons) and to readers in general, who aren’t getting all the information there is out there and aren’t getting the opportunity to create real discussions on these topics. The ideology behind it all is that since DMX said he hadn’t heard of Obama we shouldn’t listen to anything else he has to say. That, however, would be putting the messenger before the message and that is how ideas that could potentially be powerful get lost.

So the next time someone you dislike, be it a celebrity or just an acquaintance, makes a good point don’t shrug it off just because you don’t like them. Take it for what it is, a great message from a not so great messenger. The information is just as valuable no matter the delivery person.