Hood Today

It's pretty safe to say that everyone knows the media skews things to suit their own agendas. A lot of people who like to stay current have a particular news source (or a few of them) that they prefer over the others, because that news source has better reporting, or they don't twist the facts the way others do. But what do you do when you realize your independent news source is doing the very same thing that they accuse the mainstream media of doing?

Recently, I was checking out the latest feminist news on a feminist blog that I read often. One of the stories was about "why John Mayer sucks." I clicked on the link, and found a list of quotes from his latest interview, with Playboy magazine. The editor of the blog was very angry about a few particular quotes, which included things such as "My dick is sort of a white supremacist," and "My biggest dream is to write pornography." I agreed that these were offensive, so I decided to read the entire interview. However, the link she had posted led me to another (slightly longer) list of quotes, saying the worst quotes were listed "so you don't actually have to read the entire thing yourself." At this point I became a little wary, wondering if the author at the original blog had actually read the interview or just this guy's list of the worst quotes. I clicked on the link, and read the entire interview on Playboy's website.

What I found literally shocked me. Every single quote on the lists of 'worst quotes' -which had been intended to illustrate what an asshole John Mayer is - had been plucked out of a really interesting paragraph in which the musician was thoughtfully discussing aspects of his character or his life. For instance, I found that after he mentioned his "white supremacist dick," he went on to say that he thought he should "start dating separately from [his] dick." And when he said "My biggest dream is to write pornography," he had prefaced that with, "When I watch porn… I'll make up backstories in my head." So, he's not saying he wants to write porn because he thinks women are not good for anything but sex, he's saying he thinks there should be more to porn than sex. Last time I checked, that was a very sex-positive, woman-friendly way of looking at pornography. (Obviously, if you read the entire interview, he seems to have an addiction to pornography - which I'll go on record as saying is probably not a good thing. But that's not the point here.)

Since the interview came out, and the blogs went into an uproar over his comments, the mainstream news also picked up on the issue. Yahoo posted the video of his tearful apology - delivered in the middle of a concert he performed. In the apology, he expresses genuine regret for saying certain things. He also mentions several times in the apology that he is 'done trying to be clever,' and that he should just 'stick to playing his guitar.'

The only effect the wider news coverage had on me was to upset me even more. The comments that the mainstream news took issue with involved his use of the 'N-word' in one quote and his discussion of his relationships with Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Simpson. He used the 'N-word' when talking about others saying he has a 'hood pass.' He said, "It's sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a n----- pass… 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.'" He later discusses the struggle of being black, saying, "Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America."

Now, obviously this was an untactful way of saying what he felt - but I don't think these comments show that John Mayer is a racist. I think they show that he is a guy who realizes that he can't understand the black experience because, quite simply, he's not black - so he's not going to act like he knows all about it when he doesn't have a clue. Yes, he could have said that better than how he did, but can we be intelligent people here, and take a look at what people are trying to say, instead of just picking out words and phrases to condemn?

Now, I'm not na've enough to think this should be surprising from big media sources. I would expect tabloid magazines to blow this interview out of proportion, and sources like Yahoo news to run the stories because a good media storm means more readers. What really bothered me about this whole thing was that the independent blogs that I read had posted this story. The editors of websites that I trust to bring me the real story are twisting this story around in so many knots that I couldn't even recognize it when I got to the original. It makes me angry, because I struggle on a daily basis to get people to take me seriously as a feminist who values the basic idea of examining the truth. However, in this instance, the truth at one person's heart has been completely mangled because it serves other people's purposes. It seems to entertain them, to take Mayer's words out of context and complain about them. It is hypocritical of independent news sources and blogs to complain that the mainstream media contorts everything they have to say, and then do it to other people.

I feel like I've learned a valuable lesson from this experience, and I'd like to pass it on.. I've realized you can never fully trust anyone else to make a call on something, not even a news source that is based in your own ideology. From now on I will always follow the rabbit trail to find out where people are coming from and what they're quoting. This is something everyone should do anyway - base your opinions on the whole story, not on someone else's thoughts.

Article Tools