- The discussion was sparked by Juan Williams of NPR referring to Michelle Obama as “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress” on Fox News this week.  (As Ta-Nehisi notes, the remark meant little other than that Williams “knows very little about Michelle Obama and even less about Stokely Carmichael.”)

- Adam Serwer at the American Prospect group blog notes that while Williams has been a big critic of hip-hop’s use of hateful slang, Williams’ remark shows “you don’t have to call a woman a bitch to treat her like one.”

- Ta-Nehisi agrees: “I think many of us who love the music…  aren’t so much offended by the words, as what’s behind them, as what they say about how we feel about ourselves, about the women who raised us when our fathers ran off, about our sisters, about our only partners.”

Enjoy, and feel free to discuss in the comments here!