What's With All The Tearful Apologies, Then?

Apparently rock star John Mayer used the word nigger in an interview recently then made an impromptu "tearful apology" about it to an audience in the middle of a concert. Apparently it was a very emotional experience not only for Mayer but also for his audience and his band.

Mayer has said that as a result of the media hype following his interview, he is not going to play the "media game" anymore because, he laments, the media twists one's words all out of whack. But if he's been misrepresented, why is he crying and apologizing? He says he never should have used the word and will never use it again. Come on. Never? Not even to say, "Honey, please don't say nigger, you know how much I hate it; now be a dear and pass the AllFruit"? Or what if he wants to request Gayniggers from Outer Space from Netflix? Is he allowed to as long as he is white and sensitive?

Isn't it curious how even a person who doesn't think they've done anything wrong and who insists they've been misrepresented is still compelled to apologize for what they didn't do? And isn't it curious too that they don't see how wierd and irrational this is?

Okay, look, I'm annoyed by Mayer's moody rocker persona. And I'm annoyed that he has tried to intellectualize his tearful pandering to political correctness by saying (this was almost semi-clever) that he used the "N word" because he thought he could be clever and intellectualize it. In other words, he is pointing out how he made the kind of error that only impulsive, well-intentioned, intellectual pop stars make. Something along the line of Hiedegger saying, a couple decades after his stint as Nazi apologist: "Those who think greatly must err greatly."

But despite the fact the he is kind of annoying, hadn't folks ought to just let him "say what he needs to say"?

I don't care for Barak Obama's method of being president any more than I care for Mayer's music. Or of Obama's wife's method of being, you know, whatever she is. But when Obama calls some reporter sweetie; or when off the record (or so he thought) he calls Kanye a jack ass; or when his wife mentions that one of her kids used to be a bit overweight; must the same word- police who voted Obama into office haul him before the public opinion tribunals for speech crime? (Or maybe just speech faux pas. It may technically only be a crime when white folks and Republicans do it.)

Anyway, I don't admire any one of the three all that much, but there are more important things to worry about. And Kanye is a jackass.