Common's Back

Whatever

Just got passed along the full Common interview that formed the basis of the article linked below. And all I can say is that the article did not do Common's point of view justice. Just plain old bad reporting. Here's a relevant excerpt:

TOUCH: So you don’t agree with mixed race relationships?
COMMON: I don’t disagree with them. It’s just I’ve been around black girls who say, "I only date white men". I’ve been around black dudes who I see only be with white girls. Is that a lack of self-love? To say "I only deal with these type of people" has gotta be a problem.
[...]
TOUCH: Last time we talked about mixed race relationships…
COMMON: It was good that we talked about that. I talked about it even more after I hung up. I was talking to my team about it and they had their own views. My whole thing is that black women have been so put down – whether it’s due to the oppression of a white government or we [black men] putting our own women down. When dudes say they only gonna focus on white girls, to me, it’s like a slap in a black girl’s face. What’s ironic is when you hear this song on my new album called ‘Real People’. It deals with something almost of the same nature. I say: "Black men walking with white girls on they arms. I be mad at ’em as if I know they mums. Told to go beyond the surface, a person’s a person. When we lessen our women our conditions seem to worsen". I’m glad we got to discuss this though. Ya know, I still feel like because I’m an artist and I say certain things, I have a responsibility to let people know what I mean. I can’t claim to be perfect. I’m working too to be a better guy.

So it is clear that his perspective is a little more gray than protrayed by the previous article. What's funny is that I've heard that lyric on the from "Real People" a million times. I had concluded that it meant just what he says in this interview, but I dismissed my conclusion after reading the article cited below. Now I realize my original interpretation was correct. Proving once again that I'm an idiot. Just another example about how you shouldn't draw conclusions based on little threads of information. Lesson hopefully learned.