MSNBC panel blames rap music for Oklahoma frat's racist chant

MSNBC's Morning Joe crew on Wednesday suggested hip hop music's "garbage" lyrics inspired an Oklahoma fraternity's racist chant about lynching African-Americans.

"Popular culture becomes a cesspool, a lot of corporations profit off it, and then people are surprised when some drunk 19-year-old kids repeat what they've been hearing," The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol said.

"The kids who are buying hip hop," eponymous host Joe Scarborough added, are "a white audience, and they hear this over and over again."

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Panelist Willie Geist tried to inject reason into the discussion toward the end of the segment, noting that there is a huge difference between rappers using foul language and white teenagers chanting about lynching. "Well of course there is, but..." Scarborough, doing his best Helen Lovejoy impersonation, interjected. —Jon Terbush