Russell, HE DOESN'T KNOW?!?!?!?!?!!!! Really? A microphone in your face and that's all you could come up with? Sheesh! I"m kind of surprised that Russell Simmons just brushed those comments off.
Russell also says he gives John Mayer a "pass" when it comes to his statements that: 1) his d*ck was a white supremacist and 2) you could call a hood pass a ni99er pass. A pass on the first point might be plausible and understandable. He doesn't want to have sex with Black women, ok cool. But I also think it begs the question of why. Is he not attracted to dark-skinned women or ALL Black women, or does he just have a preconceived stereotype about Black women in general that he didn't care to divulge. But saying a hood pass is the same thing as a "nigger pass" is unacceptable. I refuse to believe that he "don't know" better. Maybe he didn't mean anything by it (yeah right) but he has to know better. Post-racial my azz! Russell Simmons needs to get a fucking clue and then share it with John Mayer!
It's times like this when I wish that (alleged) gangster rappers like Rick Ross, Beanie Sigel, and so on would go on record and say something like "A ni99er pass? Okay, then bring your azz to the hood and we'll see whether you have a pass or not". Not that it's a sensible/intelligent thing to do, but just to show that certain comments aren't going to be tolerated and that YES, there is something wrong with calling a "hood" pass a "ni99er" pass. Also, that you can't just go around using the N-word and talking ignant about Black folk because you have black friends, colleagues, or Black "enablers" in your circle that make you think that it's cool/okay.
The fact that more Blacks seemed to be upset about Mayer's comments about who he doesn't want to have sex with than the ni99er pass comments is really sad. I don't think that anyone really cares if John Mayer is sexin' green, red, blue, white, or black chicks. But if you think that everybody in the hood is a "ni99er" you are simply ignorant, arrogant, or a combination of the two. And Black people should care about that when you consider how we're overwhelming portrayed to be niggorant in film, television, and in music. Sometimes you have to take a stand and let people know that you might dress a certain way, talk a certain way, and like to do things they probably don't understand (read: a lil differnetly) but at the same time you are not going to tolerate ignorance and stupidity.
For posterity's sake, here's a link to John Mayer's Playboy Interview.
4 comments:
i was and am totally disgusted by the entire thing! like you said i could care less who you are sexing that's your bi and your preferance but to use the language he used and to act as if it was "ok" and then to have Russell just say its aiight...NO its not alright! period all its doing is further perpetuating the ignorance that keep racism and systematic racism still alive and well in this the supposedly best country in the world! I am over John Myer for various reasons including his immaturity and discussing his personal relationships with others in this article...
in short this dude has a lot of maturing to do ALL the way around!
I think I've changed my stance a little bit on this since having a conversation with a friend last night. I still think Russell Simmons is missing the point by saying he's giving him a pass. I don't think it deserves a pass necessarily but I do think that I may have misinterpreted what John was saying. I had a friend explain to me last night that what he was trying to say was..."I can't say I have a hood pass because if I really did have a hood pass then that means I could call it a nigger pass and get away with saying it was a nigger pass."
So what he's really trying to say is, people say I have a hood pass but I know I don't because I still can't say "nigger".
Once that was explained to me (because I definitely didn't interpret it that way when I read it) the statement didn't seem offensive.
I think it's apparent in the article that John Mayer has had and continues to have some personal issues he's dealing with (like we all do) and I don't envy his position of being in the spotlight and having to try and articulate those issues in an interview like this that could be interpreted in a lot of different ways.
I definitely think he made some out of place and borderline idiotic statements in the article, but I probably do the same shyt, just not in a Playboy article, lol.
So to sum it all up, I don't think it's something that should be brushed over without some sort of discussion about it (like this and the convo I had last night) but it's not nearly as bad as I initially thought it was.
IF that's what the statement meant then ok, i see what you're saying but i too didn't take it that way at all
we all err in our ways because we are all human...but i think the issue for me is like you said i don't envy his or any other person who is in the "spot light" position, but sometimes its better "to be be silent and be considered a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt..."
i other words sometimes you gotta know you enough to know to shut up...and we ALL have to learn that at different times in life...
ya dig
I agree. It appears that John Mayer is one of those people that can't appreciate the silence of his own voice (shot out to Apuje for coming up with that one lol).
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