John Mayer - Censored

Poor John Mayer. That dude is really regretting right about now that we live in a country with free speech. Had he not been so free in his March interview with Playboy magazine he might not be breaking down on stage in tears and burning up Twitter with lengthy apologies for what many consider racist - not to mention sexist - comments.

By way of disclosure I'll say up front that I interviewed John Mayer years ago, have been a fan for years, own all his CDs, have paid to see his shows and have read his blog.

I read the Playboy interview yesterday, and while I did cock a brow a few times - especially over that David Duke comment, which after I thought about it a bit I took to mean he simply wasn't sexually attracted to black women; which is fine, I personally can't fathom it, but it's fine LOL - mostly I laughed at the interview. I shook my head more than once thinking, this dude will probably cringe at these words later. His honesty will quickly cross the line into poor taste - how could it not when he compares his sexual organ to a leader of the KKK? - and his quick fire wit is going to act as a lightning bolt, creating a hole so big and wide he's going to fall in and not be able to get out without a crane.

Sure enough. Today he's apologizing up down and sideways, breaking down on stages in tears and swearing to shut his lips in the future.

I laughed outloud when he said Kerry Washington was "white girl crazy." That touches on a lot of tender spots, sure, and even though I can so see her saying what he suggested she might - though I'll spare you those details for the sake of our senior-level diversity executive audience - I wonder if anybody thought as I did, that this person revealed a marked preference for one race over another, despite his claim to a 'Benetton heart.'

As a minority and a journalist/editor working in the diversity space, I've often thought the level of censorship we suffer is part of the reason many of our problems around race and diversity persist.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way advocating that any and everybody run off at the mouth at will. There's a time and a place for things, but in the right place we should not be afraid to say what we feel. Honesty truly is the best policy, in my humble opinion, and Playboy is the forum for free, raunchy, controversial speech.

When someone does suffer from foot in mouth disease, the solution is not to jump to labels - John Mayer's a racist: which is a logical but still a tough call to make after what he just spewed despite working relationships with artists like BB King, Common, Kanye West and bandmate Steve Jordan - sometimes it's compassion. Sometimes it's time to teach a few lessons.

One columnist on the Huffington Post seems to agree.

Farai Chideya said: "I hope the conversation was thought provoking for those of us sending in our short-form missives on Twitter. I also hope this entire experience has given Mayer some food for thought. I have compassion for the fact that celebrity makes every move of those who have it uber-public. Not one, but two of Mayer's songs (including "My Stupid Mouth") contain the line "I'm never speaking up again," and now he may well feel like taking his own advice. But that would be a shame. Sometimes the only way to learn is by messing up, getting checked... and then learning to check yourself."

I will go on the record as labeling John Mayer one thing though - ridiculous. Insecure too. He's honest though. Definitely honest. He may even have revealed more than he wanted to.