I'm never speaking up again
It only hurts me

-- John Mayer, "Stupid Mouth"

At a Feb. 10 concert in Nashville, singer John Mayer said he's officially done with the media game. I think that's a smart decision. Sounding as if he was close to tears onstage, Mayer apologized to his fans for the comments he made in a recent Playboy interview [6]. "I decided I would try to be as clever as possible," Mayer confessed. "And I did that at the expense of people that I love ..." As a self-proclaimed John Mayer-lover, I didn't want to believe how "clever" he could be:

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I don’t think I open myself to [sex with black women.] 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.

Sadly, after reading the entire interview, I wasn't surprised by his remarks. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. In these "post-racial" days, the "down" white boy can do more damage than David Duke. But what did shock me was that Mayer would be stupid enough to say those words on the record. The husky-voiced heartthrob behind "Waiting on the World to Change," whose blues style has complemented the likes of Kanye West and Common, couldn't be the same guy who volunteered a comparison between a "hood pass" and a "Nigger pass."

Never underestimate the arrogance of a comfortable white boy. [7]

After his audacious brush off of black women, Mayer went on to add how he "always thought Holly Robinson Peete was gorgeous." (Thanks for the consolation, John!) Peete has since [7]chided Mayer's comments, but dismissed them as racist [8]. And I'd have to agree with her. Though it seems this isn't the first time Mayer's caught a case of "accidental racism, [9]" the whole conversation, which was prefaced with alcohol, paints a more realistic picture of a post-racial America where a drunk mind speaks a sober heart. He was confident "... black people love me," so the verbal diarrhea didn't matter so much. I've encountered a few down white boys who made the same assumption.  [10]

Do John Mayer and his penis hate black folks? Probably not. Judging by his Tweets [11] and his heartfelt address to his nearly all-black band ensemble [12], he really never meant to offend anyone. But time hanging out on the road with his backup singers, Kanye's and Common's crew might have led Mayer to believe he was just that cool. Hopefully, he will take his own advice, stop trying to think of witty sound bites and just play his guitar from here on out. A clever tongue is a terrible thing to let loose.

--SAARET E. YOSEPH

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Saaret joined The Root team in early 2008, during its first year of operation. Before joining the magazine's staff she lived briefly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where she penned a weekly lifestyle column in a local newspaper that detailed her perspective as a first-generation Ethiopian-American. A piece she wrote on the disheartening colonial mentality she encountered while in Addis was re-adapted for her inaugural article on The Root. During her tenure with the publication, Saaret has managed and curated site content with an eye for all things culture-related. Her writing explores issues of global identity, intra-racial divides, pop culture pigeon-holing and the rocky, tech-enhanced terrain of Generation Y.