Multiple award-winning rapper and actor Common was a guest on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” where he and host Jon Stewart were mainly expected to talk about his new action move. Instead, they ended up discussing the issues of present day racism in the light of things following the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson.
When Stewart asked him about his thoughts on addressing the issues of racism in today’s society, Common answered with a very mellow, peaceful message.
“Hey, we all know there’s been some bad history in our country. We know that racism exists. I’m extending a hand like, ‘Hey, we want to get past this. We’ve been bullied, we’ve been beat down, but we don’t want it anymore,'” said the rapper.
“We’re not extending a fist,” he continued. “We’re not saying, “you did us wrong!’ It’s more like, “Hey, I’m extending my hand in love. Let’s forget about the past as much as we can, and let’s move from where we are now. How can we help each other? Can you try to help us, because we’re going to help ourselves.”
As for his new movie, Run All Night, Common said it is similar to a classic gangster movie. His costars include Liam Neeson and Ed Harris.
Common plays Andrew Price, a character who is hired to take out a retired hitman, Jimmy Conlon (Neeson), his son Mike (Joel Kinnaman), as well as other family members.
The twist lies in that it is Conlon’s former boss, Shawn Maguire (Harris) who hires Price for the job following the death of his own son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook).
Common’s fans and the movie-going public in general couldn’t help but notice it is only in the world of cinema that a man can jump from playing a peaceful protestor who contributed great change (Selma) to a gangster who causes havoc and mayhem (Run All Night).