Despite Mayer’s apology last week during a concert in Nashville, the LOCAL GROUP Racial Unity USA will still be protesting on Sunday outside John Mayer’s concert at the Wachovia Center. According to the group’s executive director, Asa Khalif, he is a fan of Mayer’s music but that there was no excuse for the guitarist to have used the N-word during a recent Playboy interview.
“His apology didn’t mean anything. It was more rambling. A case of ‘I got my hand caught in the cookie jar,’ ” said Khalif. He went on to say that the incident is more hurtful because this is Black History Month, and that he hopes some of Mayer’s African-American band members and backing singers leave the stage during his show.
Mayer, who also talks about his exes Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston in the interview, referred to his penis as being a white supremacist like David Duke because he doesn’t date black women. Mayer used the N-word while explaining that he thought he had “a ‘hood pass.”
Ironically, it wasn’t the first time Mayer was reported as having used the incendiary word. In 2006 Mayer used it repeatedly during his stand-up comedy debut at the Comedy Cellar, in New York.
February 17, 2010
Local Group Racial Unity USA to protest against John Mayer
Guilty plea of Joseph Genovese in the death of Two Cardinals fan
Joseph Genovese, 20, of South Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide for plowing into two Cardinals fans outside Citizens Bank Park in July 2008, killing Cindy Grassi, 43, of St. Louis, Mo.
Cindy and her companion are from Missouri, they traveled here to watch their favorite Cardinals vs. Phillies. Unfortunately while crossing the street, Joseph Genovese who was then drunk ran a red light at Broad Street.
Cindy Grassi died immediately while her her friend and fellow elementary schoolteacher, Sandra Wacker, who was then 36, suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent months in recovery.
Genovese, of the 3100 block of S. Juniper Street, also pleaded guilty to vehicular aggravated assault while intoxicated and vehicular homicide while intoxicated.
His sentencing was scheduled for April 13, and he faces 13 1/2 to 27 years in prison.