(AllHipHop News) Common is far more than just a hip-hop legend, he is a political activist.
The paparazzi recently caught up with the Chicago MC to ask his thoughts about a teacher in the Bay Area using blackface to dress up as himself for Halloween.
Sooooooooo… one of our WHITE teachers at mhs yesterday decided to paint his face so look like common the rapper yesterday. pic.twitter.com/1WudSddCLZ
— karrington (@karrington_kk) November 1, 2019
A video of the costume was posted to Twitter and quickly went viral, receiving much backlash.
The engineering teacher at Milpitas High School is a white male named David Carter who was even on administrative leave after the incident.
The tweet reads, “Sooooooooo… one of our WHITE teachers at mhs yesterday decided to paint his face so look like common the rapper yesterday.”
Common initially told TMZ, “What makes you think you can go up there and do that?” He proceeds to go into a discussion surrounding education.
“I think we need to look at the teacher, the administration and the people that we have leading our children in classrooms and make sure they are fully equipped not just with academic things, but also have emotional intelligence and understanding. Maybe that’s something that we start implementing in our schools.”
He also adds he’d love to have a heart-to-heart with Carter to let him know exactly how detrimental this incident was.
Common continues, “Blackface lacks understanding of what black and brown people go Through. I believe in forgiveness, understanding, and compassion to the point where I’m willing to sit and talk with the individual and also bring others who can dig deeper into the education of what blackface has come from.”
On Thursday (November 7). Carter issued a formal apology on NBC Bay Area.
“I recognize my mistake. I ask anybody who has been adversely affected by this, and that’s a lot of people, to give me another chance because my heart is in the right place.”