John Mayer learned that, in the Twitter generation, a snowstorm is the wrong time for an interview to hit the ‘Net if you’re going to say stupid things. Snow makes people mad at all kinds of stuff that doesn’t matter.
Like, for example, whether John Mayer likes black women. He says he doesn’t. Because of my particular affinity for them, it’s hard for me to believe him. But given that blond doesn’t do anything special for me, yet bleach flies off the shelves, I can understand that my tastes aren’t anyone else’s.
Plus, the less for him is the more for me.
I won’t go too deeply into this because it doesn’t matter. But what struck me was what Mayer chose to apologize for — using the word “nigger.”
Quite the buzz word “nigger” is. Doesn’t scare me much. Scares the mess out of a lot of you.
Anyway, here’s Mayer’s quote from Playboy using “nigger.”
Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a nigger pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.’”
There’s nothing offensive there. It’s inaccurate, but not offensive (that’s not what a “hood pass” really refers to). The truth is, given Mayer’s interpretation of the concept, that he can’t call himself black or honorary black because he doesn’t deal with the nonsense that black people put up with on a regular basis. Nobody sees him as a “nigger,” so he can’t pretend to be one.
Here’s the apology in three parts.
Re: using the ‘N word’ in an interview: I am sorry that I used the word. And it’s such a shame that I did because the point I was trying to make was in the exact opposite spirit of the word itself. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it, because I realize that there’s no intellectualizing a word that is so emotionally charged.
I’m not sure why he can’t intellectualize it, though.
Yes, I am sure — because people bug out so so so fast.
It’s not just black people. It’s the hyper-politically-correct white crowd and pretty much everyone else that, instead of understanding why hearing “nigger” from non-black people is so jarring, just avoided it. Very similar to a spouse saying “fine, I just won’t do that anymore” out of hurt and in defense.
It’s not that simple. Now, if approaching it with that simplicity is what it takes to stop someone from getting hit in the face, far be it from me to recommend you change your stripes. Safe is intrinsically good.
But when people apologize for verbalizing what so many of us know — that there are plenty of people that still see black folks as “niggers” — then we’ve got a problem.
He chose the clearest way possible to illustrate his point, and he wasn’t just throwing “nigger” around in vain or in an unwieldy manner. In an interview where Mayer was all over the place, this was perhaps the clearest, most focused thing he said.
Even though he doesn’t understand what a hood pass is.
But don’t apologize to me, man. Don’t apologize to black women, either, for you like what you like. Apologize to Kerry Washington for saying she’s “white girl crazy,” if it strikes you.
But for using “nigger?” Psssh. I’m kinda glad you did. Sounds like, even if his penis alliteratively resembles a white supremacist, he’s got confidence that his heart is legitimately good. Based on that one statement, there’s no real reason to think otherwise.
