The problem with not reading the source material is that you never end up getting the full picture, or even an understanding of what the message truly is.
This is also from the interview:
[there's stuff written here]...I went to Cuba, illegally, in 2000.
What happened?
That trip was the trip where I left behind the big headwrap I used to wear. I got a story about that. Want to hear it?
Yeah, of course.
I was dating Common. After André [Benjamin] and I split, Common and I fused into a couple in some kind of way. And he took me to Cuba. He said he wanted me to get a Santería reading there.
I can’t believe you fell for that line.
[
Laughs] That line works! I was into Candomblé back then too. And La Regla de IfáSantería, or La Regla de Ifá, is a religious bricolage of Yoruba, Christian, and indigenous American beliefs; it is practiced throughout the African diaspora in the Caribbean, though the United States has around 20,000 practitioners. Candomblé is an Afro-Brazilian religion merging Catholicism, West African religious tradition, and indigenous American beliefs, with about 2 million followers in the Americas.Badu coined the term for her debut album, the 1997 triple-platinum, Grammy-winner that made her a leading voice in neo-soul.. That kind of thing was so exciting to me. And at that time, I was wearing all white, with a towering white headwrap — I thought that if people saw white, it would attract great energy. So Common took me to Cuba, and we went to meet an interpreter named Pablo who led us to where the Santería reading was. And we got there and were waiting in line on the curb with everyone else who was there for a reading. On my right was this man smoking a cigar, and he had on the dirtiest Pumas I had ever seen in my life. On my left was a man who had on the tightest white shorts — you could see his nuts. I was okay with that. I wasn’t okay with those two passing a cigarette back and forth over the white shyt I was wearing. But we were in Cuba, and it was their home, so I went with it. Finally, this short little lady in a long yellow dress came out and said it was my turn.
Then what happened?
So she brought me into a little room in a house with no ceiling. I was kneeling on the floor and she was washing my headwrap; it was a ritual, to soften my spirit. Pablo was explaining everything to me. Then a girl came in, without knocking, and reached over me to grab something off a clothesline. And I’m thinking,
This reading is a dream for me, and people are just coming in like that? So we kept going, and then the man with the Pumas came in and was just standing there with a beer. And I’m like,
Wait a minute, this is not what I had in mind. And Pablo turns to me and says, “He’s the priest.” Then I changed. I didn’t need the headwrap anymore.
What exactly was the epiphany?
In that moment, I realized that you don’t have to meet anyone else’s expectations. You don’t have to conform to anything other than who you are. The guy in the Pumas came from a long line of healers, and he didn’t have to look like one to be one. (Notice that over here she tells you how profoundly the knoweldge that "people aren't always what they seem" shaped her persona. That has become her main ontological vein.)
Do you remember the actual reading?
I don’t. Maybe it was something like “Don’t get with Common.”
What’s a more recent epiphany?
One of my children was asking me, “Mom, when we die, do we come back?” And I said, “I don’t know. But that sounds good.” “Do we choose the people we want to be with when we come back?” I said, “I don’t know. But maybe we do.” She said, “Well, when I die, I’m going to choose to be with you again.” It was easy tears. It made me think that all that matters is how she sees me.
But, I’m sorry, did I offend you in any way earlier when you thought I was defending anti-Semitism?
I wasn’t offended. It’s more that I was worried —
“Is she about to get in here and Black Power me to death?”
No no, not that at all. But I think partly it’s that, as a Jew —
Okay, I could tell.
Is it my schnoz?
Just, you got a whole Jewish thing.
I’ll take that as a compliment.
It is. A sexy JewishWriter’s note: Badu is a very generous soul. thing.
But no, I wasn’t offended.
Oh good. That makes me happy.
@Geoffrey_Chaucer yes, it does seem like she tries a bit too hard to be different; but I don't think she is a person deserving of being offended as you have offended her in this thread breh. Be kind to those willing to apologize for the mere notion that they may have offended someone.
The way you talked about her, it's like you personally have a particular problem with her. Not a good look breh.
Edit:
What’s something you’re still learning to do?
You can build a whole fukking world on the shyt I don’t know.
I used to want to appear like I knew everything, and now my favorite answer to give is “I don’t know.” I just love to say, “I don’t know.” It makes life a whole lot easier.
Well, guess even Socrates himself would have proudly crowned her a wise human being just off of that.
they gon end her career
Wipe your tears and blow your nose bytch.
gtfoh
