He himself says "its almost a stereotype that if you’ve got dreadlocks you go out with a white girl" -- as if this condition by itself, without knowing the people at all, should make us feel uncomfortable. Paradoxically, he prefaces that statement with an anti-racist statement ("I don’t think there's anything the matter with somebody loving somebody from another race"). Funny, then why mention the "dreadlocks --> white girl" thing at all? It's like he wants it both ways; it seems he's saying there IS something wrong with it, but won't come out and say it (beyond the usual sloganeering of "representing").
Obviously, this is just some dumb interview, and sometimes people have a hard time articulating their thoughts in a comprehensible way, so I'm not necessarily saying that the guy's a racist or a dimwit... But on the other hand, I'm having incredible difficulty in seeing anything rational in what he's saying. It seems like a perspective based on a vague sense of fear and paranoia about what might happen to one's "credibility" and "realness" when he deviates from the socially-mandated behavior of a "conscious and self-aware black man." Whatever that means.
― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― deej.., Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:35 (eighteen years ago) link
Good lord: surely you guys are familiar with this discussion that he's taking part of? This discussion that's like pretty much central in the lives of newly-educated and newly middle-class blacks or many sorts? And surely you can read well enough to see that he at no point said that he won't date people of other races -- just that he hasn't? Half of his wording is based around the "only" -- i.e., let's not make a practice of "aspiring" to white-dating at the expense of our own.
Which is a problematic thing to say, and doesn't effectively take into account the experience and situations of blacks who find themselves in positions where white people are their peers; you can accuse a lot of people of "only" dating white people when it's really just circumstance, not programmatic. But the strawman he's aiming at here isn't in the least an uncommon or unreasonable one; just a strawman.
― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:36 (eighteen years ago) link
x-post
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:40 (eighteen years ago) link
I dont see whats wrong with the AIDS campaigns. He wants to do something good, good for him. Its not like he's pulling a Bono or something (note: I dont even like the new album)
― deej.., Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― dumbest, Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:44 (eighteen years ago) link
If a black man wishes to engage in casual sex with a white woman, he must agree to giggle about it whenever the topic arises.
― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:44 (eighteen years ago) link
BN: I don't hate you! I just think you're a menace to rhetoric. (heh)
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:47 (eighteen years ago) link
xpost -- Banana, it's full of weird assumptions about why black people wind up dating white people; it's easy to call blacks (especially successful ones) who date whites "sell-outs," but the fact is that in most cases (especially for young women), certain kinds of "success" mean having fewer and fewer black people in your social circle (not to mention all the middle-class blacks who grew up around white people their whole lives anyway). But really, what's this stuff about "libido calling out?" All he said is that he's slept with white women and presumably women of various races, but that he's only wound up having relationships with black women. Pretending, like the thread title does, that this is programmatic is as bad as the strawman assumption that he's making, which is that black people who mostly date white are being programmatic about it, instead of maybe sometimes just winding up there through neutral circumstance.
― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:48 (eighteen years ago) link
(xpost: Nabisco desperately OTM about the intellectual level of ILX)
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― dumbest, Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:53 (eighteen years ago) link
xpost if his dick is just lying somewhere, then that's hardly the point is it?
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:56 (eighteen years ago) link
1. I, Common, am a little unnerved by how common it is for dreadlocked black dudes to have white girlfriends - to the point of this trope being a stereotype. I don't like it.1a. If these guys date exclusively white girls, they are sending a bad message to black women young & old, thereby damaging a community that is already at a disadvantage in many ways.1b. It is my opinion that therefore they shouldn't do this.
2. Mixed relationships are OK by me but I think it's better for black people to love each other.2a. I personally have not had relationships with women of other races, but that doesn't mean I won't toss 'em the ol' hog every now and then.2b. However: "To say ‘I only deal with these type of people’ has gotta be a problem."
3. wtf
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 9 June 2005 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link
I mean, my line: (a) people who date a particular other race in a programmatic way are a bit suspect, but more importantly (see "White Men who Only Date Asian Women" thread); but then also (b) making the assumption that strangers are being programmatic about such things, without concrete evidence, is suspect in a much meaner way.
― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:03 (eighteen years ago) link
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:09 (eighteen years ago) link
Yes. (xposted now, but I'm posting anyway)
Common's thesis is that adopting black power signifiers while refusing to date black people is really fucking odd and self-loathing. He doesn't have anything against interracial relationships or hookups (he himself has had interracial hookups) but he thinks that people going into those relationships should do so because they love the other person, not because of self-image baggage.
I know a woman who flat-out told us that she would marry a white man who beat her over a black man who treated her like a goddess because she didn't want her kids to be as dark as her. I don't know if she still feels that way but surely that doesn't strike you as a healthy outlook on interracial dating? This is the type of thing Common is talking about.
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:11 (eighteen years ago) link
xpost (was replying to oops): fair enough Dan
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― markgreen, Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― icecube, Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:18 (eighteen years ago) link
xpost haha icecube yeah you're right that white boy Dan Perry, he sure does talk a lot o' shit
― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― deej.., Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:23 (eighteen years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― blahbariantheoriginal, Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:39 (eighteen years ago) link
I'm not.
― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Thursday, 9 June 2005 20:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Don Rowlando (Sam Rowlands), Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Cunga (Cunga), Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:26 (eighteen years ago) link
― Norris, Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― bettyboo (papa la bas), Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:33 (eighteen years ago) link
yawn, when common goes to the doctors or wherever, he ticks mixed race in the ethnicity box. he is BLACK. no one is tracing that far back. stop with this hippified, 'hey were all just humans maaaaan' nonsense.
― blahbariantheoriginal, Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Yeah, totally dude. Black people are monkeys.
― Senor Grubby, Thursday, 9 June 2005 21:50 (eighteen years ago) link
― no, seriouly, the dumbest, Thursday, 9 June 2005 22:07 (eighteen years ago) link
So, Common walks down the street, sees a black guy with a white girl. Based on this information, he makes a judgement about the black man's attitude toward his own race. That's shitty.
I'm in an interracial couple, and I really don't like the idea that someone thinks they've got me pegged because of my girlfriend's skin color.
― Super Cub (Debito), Thursday, 9 June 2005 23:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 9 June 2005 23:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Thursday, 9 June 2005 23:59 (eighteen years ago) link
yeah, i'm pretty much diggin' the mark green commentary; kinda reminds me of that meek dude on the "de la soul is dead" skits, only instead of "i kinda like it/(SMACK!)", its "no serious- i'm kinda jealous(*slinks away*)
"most sell out, like a dread with a white girl"-dread>>>>>>>dreadlocks. dread= David Hinds/dreadlocks= Malcolm Jamaal Warner; irony is singing songs of Garveyism and black power, then leaving the set with a Suze Orman look-alike...ain't love/lust a muthaCROCKA?.
"Have you ever dated outside your race?Nah, not dated (giggles)."-a rock star who's fucked randomly. AMAZING! no wait- a man who fucks against his politics? STROM-AZING!
"Dealing with having sex with a white girl is something I have encountered and im not acting like white girls and other races are not people."-awkward verbal dance around the "yup, i bone white girls!" facts...
but my favorite parts of this thread are the initial "common said WHAT?! well, his album sucks!" posts in the beginning.
ps. wait'tilyouseemy... *giggles*
― natlawdp, Friday, 10 June 2005 00:14 (eighteen years ago) link