Hiatus, John Mayer, and More Insomnia

So I'm going on a wee bit of blog hiatus. I really am unhappy with how my blog looks so I have been investing some time in learning some new stuff to either 1. improve my current blog or 2. make a better looking, even better one. Of late, I have been working on something that I call 'the boredom project.' I'll let everyone know how that goes.

I'm going to leave you with a fairly old post that I wrote awhile back but never got around to publishing:

Hey Y'all!
It's 7:30 AM and yours truly hasn't gone to bed....at alll. Ugh. On a brighter/possibly alarming note, the day before, I slept from 9pm to 1pm the next day!

So as promised, in times of sleeplessness, I'm hitting the blogosphere! And what I would like to talk to y'all about today is JOHN MAYER. In case you guys didn't heard he got into quite some hot water about statements he made in an interview with Playboy. You can google it but here are the pertinent points:

MAYER: It depends on what I picked up. My two biggest hits are “Your Body Is a Wonderland” and “Daughters.” If you think those songs are pandering, then you’ll think I’m a douche bag. It’s like I come on very strong. I am a very…I’m just very. V-E-R-Y. And if you can’t handle very, then I’m a douche bag. But I think the world needs a little very. That’s why black people love me.

MAYER: 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.’"

PLAYBOY: It is true; a lot of rappers love you. You recorded with Common and Kanye West, played live with Jay-Z.

MAYER: What is being black? It’s making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that’s seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you’ll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude’s.

PLAYBOY: Do black women throw themselves at you?

MAYER: I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.

So first off, sorry about the foul language...but that's John Mayer for you. But I have quite a bit to say about this and I wanted the full thing unedited.

I have a theory. My theory is that for a white male being able to say the N-word without offending black person is like the ultimate symbol of acceptedness. Unfortunatley, this happening is like spotting the Loch Ness monster, capturing Big Foot, etc. It will never happen. But I doubt that John Mayer will be the last white guy to fall into this trap because the general thought pattern behind his statements is very prevalent in America between all different groups.

There is more or less a belief in the United States that only black people can say the N-word. Therefore, if I am able as a white/asian/latino(this gets a little tricky) to use that word then I am able to completely separate myself from my racial group identity. I'm not John Mayer the white guy, the member of some group whose values I may (although in this case I think he does) or may not agree with. I'm John Mayer and goshdarnnit, I'm special. And being a person completely unencumbered by a racial identity is the height of sophistication.

Prior to hearing about the john mayer thing I was reading this blog I follow that basically says that the post-racial, Obama era is a real life example of 'the emperor has no clothes' fable. Although I think the second half of the piece devolves into Obama bashing which doesn't really critically account for the unique confluence of problems facing the U.S. prior to his election, the basic point is that now the ability to ignore obvious realities/see things that aren't always there (*cough* diversity *cough*) is viewed as being sophisticated. Racism is so last year, a fact which is clear from John Mayer's reference to David Duke.

Anywho, my main pet peeve with all of this controversy is that I doubt that John Mayer will ever really 'get' why he said what he did. I think that he quite possibly does generally regret using that word because if you had thousands of people calling you a racist, most people would feel guilt ridden. But the underlying belief that by being a celeb and an artist who has been embraced by prominent black musicians like Common and Jay-Z that John Mayer the individual is not just John Mayer the white guy. I like to call this the 'Exception Trap.' By which exceptional life experiences become excuses to behave in ways that they would clearly identify as racist if they were consciously taking part of as a group. For example, I'm sure that John Mayer would recognize that it would be appropriate for a group of white ppl to use the N-word. But obviously, most people aren't

"Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim."-Elie Weisel