Common's view on interracial relationships

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SneezeAtDaRolex

Guest
Touch caught up with rapper Common to hear his take on race and relationships

TOUCH: This is a lyric from the track ‘Heat’ on your ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ album: "State senators, life twirls, most sell out – like a dread with a white girl." Explain please.
COMMON: Rastafarianism is a black culture. When you see dreadlocked dudes with white girls that’s like they going against what the dreadlock’s purpose was. The dreadlock was a symbol of black love and the black people gettin’ to a certain level. In America we’ve got a lot of dreadlocked dudes and all you see them with is white girls. I don’t think there’s anything the matter with somebody loving somebody from another race but it’s almost like a stereotype that if you’ve got dreadlocks you go out with a white girl. I just feel like, as black men, we do have to be aware that, yo, every time we step out with some woman it’s setting an example for our daughters and it’s also representing something for our mothers. If you can’t really love your own, how can you really love others?

TOUCH: So you don’t agree with mixed race relationships?
COMMON: I disagree with them. It's a lack of self-love. It's a problem.

TOUCH: Have you ever dated outside your race?
COMMON: Nah, not dated [giggles].

TOUCH: Have you slept with anybody outside your race?
COMMON: Yeah, I definitely have.

TOUCH: So sleeping with someone outside your race is OK but dating isn’t?
COMMON: People got their choice. I’m not telling them how to live their lives. I just tell them what I think about and what I feel about certain situations. Dealing with having sex with a white girl is something I have encountered and I’m not acting like white girls and other races are not people. We all people: children of God. But our race has been damaged. Sometimes to get back up to the level of respect and love, you’ve gotta stick with your own for a minute and build a certain amount of strength and community within yours so that other people can respect and honour your traditions.

TOUCH: How do you feel about a black person dating a mixed race person of black and white parentage?
COMMON: Ah man, if you’ve got one black parent and one white parent, then the majority of the time you considered black. People don’t look at Tiger Woods and see he’s mixed. They say he’s a black golfer, even if he say he’s something else. Look, I ain’t here to judge people’s relationships. I’m more about, "Hey black people, I see you out there talking about how you a Rastafarian, but you only wanna date white women". Is that what Rastafarianism is based on?

TOUCH: Rastafarianism has different houses with different views. Though Rastafarianism is about celebrating who you are and where you’re from, isn’t it also about loving people regardless of creed or colour?
COMMON: I don’t know all the bases of Rastafarianism, but I know that it stems from Africa and Ethiopia and really came into fruition in Jamaica during the time that the blacks were being oppressed. It was about black people paying homage to their culture, embracing their culture. So when you embrace your culture and then say, "OK, but I’m only gonna date the opposite race", to me that’s a little opposite to what you’re projecting out through your hair and the way you looking. I know you don’t agree, but I’m glad that you bringing these things up. How do you feel, as a white lady?

TOUCH: I absolutely loved your album ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ but that lyric pissed me off. I live in a very multicultural environment, maybe if I lived in America I would feel differently.
COMMON: Yeah, it definitely has something to do too with the way I was raised. I mean, not even from my parents, but from being in Chicago, a very segregated city. There is very much an enforcement of black culture where I grew up.

Common boards his plane. We agree to disagree. I tell him I respect that he speaks his mind in music. Days later our conversation continues.

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."

WORDS BY ELLE J SMALL

Taken from the June Edition of Touch magazine
 
WOW...what a twat. Good thing I didn't buy his album.
 
He was calling out so called rastas,which there motto is basically pro-black,so what are rasta's doing with white girls and saying they follow the belief? And I'm far from racist I see people as blue and green.Blue is my favorite color and says purity to me and green which is something I put in the air here and there and all cultures do the same..But i agree with him callin out so-called "rastas"
 
JSDM said:
He was calling out so called rastas,which there motto is basically pro-black,so what are rasta's doing with white girls and saying they follow the belief? And I'm far from racist I see people as blue and green.Blue is my favorite color and says purity to me and green which is something I put in the air here and there and all cultures do the same..But i agree with him callin out so-called "rastas"
You're an ignorant twat aswell.
 
Heezzi said:
HYPOCRITE STATUS CONFIRMED
Co-Sign. Common is half white himself. Here's him and his mother
commonswhitemama.jpg

Dude has issues.
 
RobertSylvesterKelly = BottleOfOpium = SneezeAtDaRolex = Cal.chrn

Can we ban this clown now...
 
I blame erica badu..that is the type of twat you dont hit or hit and run far away.its dangerously great lol...that's what those songs are about like "power of the p-u-s-s-y/that's why every mother...in the world dress fly/
 
When will this fool learn... ahhhh, vamoose, son(s) of bltch(s).

Anyway, back on topic. As long as Common ain't bein racist about the whole ordeal... I ain't stressin his comments. Thats his viewpoint, recognize that and keep it movin... it ain't like he is being hateful which alot of people can be. While I disagree with him, it doesn't make me dislike him as an artist... or say dumbshlt like "I'm glad I didn't buy his album".

But phuck all that, whos the honey in the red dress? Kanye's main squeeze?
 
bein mixed my self i was pissed off when i heard the line. Being jamaican i was pissed of that this dude from chicago wanna tell people what rasta stands for.
 
RobertSylvesterKelly said:

Co-Sign. Common is half white himself. Here's him and his mother
commonswhitemama.jpg

Dude has issues.

Lol thas hurtin

Im not black or white, but i do agree with him on the be proud of ur race, buts its almost like no one wants to go out with theeir own race.
 
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to black men..they say black women have a rep for not shutting up and complaining too much and they say white women shut the hell up..
 
I would understand if he was simply saying that he doesn't agree with people who refuse to date women of their own race, but I don't agree with him disapproving of mixed race relationships in general.

He should be more open minded, especially considering that he has many mixed raced fans. How would you feel if you had a white and black parent and supported his music for years, only to read this?

He also lost for saying it's ok to have sex with someone from a different race but it's wrong to date them...that type of attitude seems to be lessening women, and Common hates that, right?
 
Peeps need to research hip hop origin and beliefs for real..i think he's saying to fake the funk if it aint you..
 
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i know one thing, most african black men in my town seek a white girl and most african black woman seek a white man, cause their family should integrate good in the belgian society. They don't want to make the same segregation between origins like the arab immigrants in our country did in the 70's and the 80's wich leaded to the heavy racism on arabs in europe now. They want to mixup everything so the race issue disappears. The last 5 years you see hunderds of mixed mariages in my city (Gent, Belgium) only.
 
he's gonna regret saying that.so if i fall in love with a black woman i'm showing a lack of self love?or does his statement apply only to black men,or only to rasta's?is he a rasta?what gives him the right?although to be fair,if it was just a conversation not an interview its a bit different.
 
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