Damn people, just by reading this I see that we are all, well maybe not all, have some sense of where are beliefs are....but, once again I see a double standard.
Now, it was explained to me and I understand the term "GAY" to describe the lifestyle, sexual orientation and/or cultural chioce (whatever or however you want to believe it is) of men, while the term "LESBIAN" is meant to describe the lifestyle, sexual orientation and/or cultural chioce (whatever or however you want to belive it is) of two women.
As I analyze the statement or 2nd hand statement of Common's, I see that however you want to take his comment or the tone thereof, it is my understanding that he was talking about men.
OK, now to the point ladies and gentlemen...everyone is all willy nilly because he's was talking about two men. Now, if he were talking about two women, not only would everyone not have a problem with it, they would have wanted the two women to get on stage and slob each other down. You can take my comment as pseuo-feminist or whatever, but one of you said it yourself, however jokinly, that if it were women, there wouldn't have been a problem.
As for Eminem, of course, there's another double standard, most of all it's matter of discrimination. We all know that we live in a society that turns a blind eye to the oppression of our black borthers, so why are you surprised that Eminem can display his homophobia without discourse from such organizations as G.L.A.A.D.? Moreover, the funny part is that the public has been sleeping on the beautiful music of Common and other artist who fall under the category of T.H.E.M. (as uest would say it), but all of a sudden he's saying something bad about gay MEN(this is the operative word). No matter how much he has uplifted black women through his work...that's besides the societal point. But when Eminem came on the scene and even when he released his new album, no one...i mean no one, asked him to apologize for his lyrics about violence against women. Don't get me wrong, I know some of you respect this man, just cause of his "3rd leg" status, and yes, I understand that he is comminucating to the world what alot of men be thinking in their minds about their own girlfriends in those times of trouble (this was his explaination of his lyrics), but do we draw the line at the actual sound of a woman gurgling blood from having her throat slit on Eminem's album or are we going to keep our minds narrowed?




Dice Raw: "Reclaiming the Dead", September 19, 2000" Your just going to have to wait.


The simple shut doors and screams inside of my head. It wd be difficult. To make such a straightforward document of my life. Because in fact sometimes I yet cannot face understanding that my life has been a roll of minutes. A series of absolutely connected images, being born and passing almost at the same time. I think my life an incredible maze and blotch of shadows, circuses, divas, and floats. Much sadness. Much hapiness. Mostly expectation and desire. And yet it is all here in me to be revealed reunderstood. (Amiri Baraka..."6 Persons", I)


The brutal truth is that the bulk of white people in America never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes. It is not the black child's language that is in question, it is not his language that is despised: It is his experience. A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. A child cannot be taught by anyone whose demand, essentially, is that the child repudiate his experience, and all that gives him sustenance, and enter a limbo in which he will no longer be black, and in which he knows that he can never become white. Black people have lost too black children that way. (James Baldwin)