White Party-Goers Look To Sole Black Guy For Approval Every Time Rap Song Plays

Story by Egon Sinclair 

| Published Feb 9, 2010

Some 45 college students of assorted age and major tacitly elected fellow party attendee Rolland Weathers the sole arbiter of music taste at a get-together held last Friday. Throughout the evening, guests continually looked to the junior biochemistry major -- who also happened to be the only black guy there -- for approval every time a hip hop song blared over the party's stereo.

"At first, we put on a playlist made up of all the albums Pitchfork ever gave a 0.0 to, because we're all too smart to let some dumb Web site determine what we listen to," said sophomore French major Hayley Paletti. "But then all of a sudden, someone changed the music to 'I'm a Playa,' and I was all, "Oh my God! You can't play Tech N9ne in front of a black guy! That's so offensive!'"

However, Paletti and the roughly four dozen other students milling about the living room refrained from voicing their opinions on the song choice, opting instead to sneak casual glances at Weathers to determine whether or not he was "in to it." Weathers, who was unfamiliar with the song until said party, asserted it to be "listenable" as "some of the rhymes were pretty clever, I guess."

The other guests, however, assumed Weathers' tepid response to be an indication of disapproval. The next several songs following the Tech N9ne club anthem were also hip hop numbers, most of which had enjoyed time on the Top 40 list. As the deluge of rap music continued, senior fisheries and wildlife major Will Abott became more and more uncomfortable.

"I kept trying to make eye contact with (Weathers) so I could flash him a friendly smile and maybe give him a thumbs up, but that never happened," Abott said. "The whole time I was thinking, 'Man, what's if he's one of those socially conscious black guys? Does anyone here have some Mos Def?'"

A later survery of the scene revealed the entire Mos Def discography to be present on seventeen mp3 players and two iPhones belonging to party-goers.

"It took me a few minutes to figure out why everyone was starting at me expectantly," said Weathers, who estimated he accumulated 30 high fives, two dozen pats on the arm or back and a "What's up, man?" from everyone at the party throughout the night. "But after that I shrugged it off and made game out of counting how many people cringed slightly whenever a rapper said the word 'nigga.'"

"112," he added with a grin.

The day after the party, several attendees contacted Weathers over Facebook, asking for his aid in assembling a playlist for the following weekend. The list is rumored to include the likes of Muddy Waters, Nat King Cole and "some rock-your-face-off Swedish power metal."