Michael "Kramer" Richards racist tirade (1 Viewer)

[Alex-C]

Who was he going to apologize to ? An audience that had no idea about what happened the previous night ? The story broke wide on
Monday. Now maybe that's debatable, but I'll just say it didnt appear on the drudge until Monday. It happened on Friday night, and he was in the club again Saturday night. Now if the patrons were there again (cant really imagine that), he had a whole new audience.

I get the feeling the damage was much bigger than expected and subsequently, so was/is the damage control.

BTW, M.Richards as Kramer still cracks me up in reruns....as for "boycotting" the show now...that's kookie talk !

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

He is now being referred to by some on the Intenet as "Kosmo K. Kramer".

 

[Alex-C]

Apparently the Kramer Reality Tour now goes through Kentucky.

 

[WillG]

You know, between this incident and Mel Gibson, I feel that as a society, we really need to start calming the hell down about "One Man's Words" incidents. The more that we gasp, the more that we run the stories in the papers and on TV for three weeks in a row, the more power we give these words. I think we have to stop treating these incidents as the worst crimes against humanity since the Holocaust. There are many things much more worse that happen in the world than Kramer calling some black hecklers "Niggers" Hell, Mel Gibson was ENDANGERING LIVES by driving drunk, but that won't be what will be remembered about the incident by a long shot. How dare Richards uses these words, yet I still see people wearing Charlie Manson T-Shirts, just walking around like the guy is some sort of icon.

I believe that everyone has bigotry of some kind in them somewhere. Being wary and even critical of people who are different is one of the most base foundations of humanity. Of course, I don't condone what Richards did, but I can understand where it came from and why it happened. I don't think the incident alone makes Richards a true racist. There is real racism that goes on out there and that incident was not it.

I am also really sick of black people being able to get away with using the word. When Chris Rock blasted "Niggers" it went on to become one of the most classic moments of Stand up history now picture a white comedian doing the same bit......end of the world. If we are going to choose to be so offended over the word, then no one should be allowed to use it, period.

We are way too reactionary over what are just words, and I do believe it really does continue to feed the power of the language. And I do believe that by and large the way society has thrown Richards and Gibson to the wolves recently is hypocritical. I would be very surprised that anyone who is reading this thread has never had a bigoted thought go through their mind. Richards and Gibson's actions were wrong and should not be condoned, but who are we to judge these people when all they really did were use some words, as ugly as they were.

These people have given public apologies and it is not good enough for people either (and I'm not saying some other pennance isn't warranted). I feel that not having the capicity or willingness to forgive someone who gives a gesture of apology is just as bad as the "racism" that necessitated it in the first place.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

WillG wrote (post # 65):


"Great minds think alike!" So, tell us, pray, where did it come from? Why did it happen?

 

[WillG]

You may have answered your own question in your post. Richards got pissed and went for the jugular. There is a lot of adrenaline and "heat of the moment" behavior that goes along with live performance. In that vein, I can understand what may have led to the incident. Perhaps Richards is a racist. I don't know, but I don't think it is quite fair to judge him as a person based on this one incident. Especially when pretty much all of us have been guilty of prejudiced thoughts in our lives.

 

[Nick Martin]

For most people, the words 'black' and 'ni**er' are one and the same - interchangeable.

To me, they are not. That word represents to me an attitude, style, and sense of values (or in this case lack thereof) not bound by skin color. Violent, arrogant, living for the gun, 'bitches' everywhere, that whole 'thug life' nonsense...that is what I think of when I hear that word. Live in any big city and you will see that white people act the same way, as well as arab, asian...it's all a style ( I don't like the word culture, because that way of life doesn't deserve to be legitimized) that some people embrace for whatever reason.


Very few people make that distinction.

So I believe in the word, but I don't agree with it's use as a blanket term for black people. It happens to be the last name of a white '50s sitcom family


I love offensive comedy. I love it even more when a public figure is being offensive in their real life. It's all words and stupidity. Actions are when these things should be taken seriously. Richards lights a cross on fire at the Laugh Factory....now that's serious.

 

[AnthonyC]

Which show?

It reminds me of a scene from the British Office where David and Gareth are discussing some old 1940s movie star whose horse was named "Nigger." David kept trying not to say it when Gareth blurted it out, and David awkwardly tries to walk out of the conversation by informing viewers that "That was before racism was bad."

 

[WillG]

I believe he us refering to a sketch from "Chappelle's Show" called "The Niggar Family"

 

[Chris]

Amen. I think the same thing every time I see someone in a Che Guevara shirt.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Yeah, but at least Manson wrote a couple decent songs.

 

[Holadem]

nm

 

[Brent M]

I'll preface my comments by saying two things: First, what Michael Richards said was completely offensive and there's no justifying an outburst like that in any way. Second, Chappelle's Show is one of my all-time favorite TV shows(right up there with Seinfeld.......go figure). With that out of the way, why is it acceptable for Chappelle to use the N word 15 or 20 times in an episode of his show, but it's the end of the world when Richards says it over and over again? What about Eminem? He can use the word all day with no repercussions, but if I did that I'd probably be beaten to death or shot! The double standard surrounding that word is ridiculous IMHO and ALL black people should either decide that it's acceptable for everyone to use or for nobody to use it at all. I know that's never going to happen, but it certainly makes more sense than the way things are now. Just my .02 on the subject.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I have to disagree, and let me try to persuade you. I think it'll touch on the ideas represented in several posts to this thread.

A word, in and of itself, it powerless. Only the ideas communicated with the words carry weight. And even those are not the same as actions. But let's put aside actions for the moment and deal with words and ideas. The simple fact is that if a black person walks up to a friend who happens to be another black person and says, "What's up, my n****r," it simply isn't communicating the same idea (at all) as a a black overhearing an interviewer say, "No way I'm hiring that n****r." You simply have to allow for the fact that in the English language, words can be used in different ways.

The first form concerns me only in the sense that I want the people saying it to realize that by saying it, they may unwittingly make it OK for others to say and think it. Still, I don't associate racism with it. The second form is oppression and racism in practice.

I say n****r isn't the best way to talk, but neither is cracker, spic, etc. ad infinitum. Still, people do it every day. Some without even realizing it. I've told the story before but I'll tell it again here. When I was growing up, we used to use the word "Jewed" to mean "cheated". Like you buy a car for $2k and it falls dead before you get a block from the lot. A friend might say, "Man, you got Jewed." There was certainly a racial background to the terminology, but not coming from my mouth. In fact, I didn't even know what a Jew was back then (I knew there were biblical Jews, but I certainly didn't make any connection). When I got older, learned about who Jews were, and found myself about to use the term one day, I had a light bulb moment, and I've never used the phrase again in that context. But the key is even when I was saying it, I never had any intent on being racist, and never thought of Jews as less than any other human being.

So I continue to say it's the ideas behind the words that matter most. People say all kinds of hurtful things when they're mad. I'm not going to consider one any more evil than another... especially in 2006. If someone gets strung to the back of a truck and dragged in Texas, it deserves my attention. If a comedian in a comedy club is just trying to say something hurtful to people heckling him, not as much.

One other thing. I'm not a fan of easy targets. Racism gets practiced on a daily basis and most of us ignore it to some degree. In the video, the irony is that the people Richards attacked wailed right back at him with, "Cracker!" Maybe they think of all whites that way, maybe not. The fact that they were there to see Kramer leads me to believe probably not. But, once they got mad, they grabbed for what they could to try to be hurtful. I'm still not sure how that's significantly different from what Richards did.

People make mistakes in life. But we really should accept the burden of differentiating between a bad choice and true feelings coming out. I simply don't believe Richards thinks of the black populace as N****rs.

 

[Holadem]

Some might consider the implication that the black race is a hive-mind-like collective, offensive in and onto itself. Hard to believe I know, but the culture where that word is commonplace is but a subset of the African American community - and an insignificant subset of the black race.

--
H

 

[TravisR]

Not that it means much or really alters your point but Eminem has never said that word on his albums (other black dudes on his records do though). There was a homemade tape from the early 1990's where he said it and when Vibe or The Source got ahold of it, he took heat for it.

 

[MarkHastings]

LOL - so he's not a racist because he doesn't say it, but he advocates black people to say it on his albums? Man, the lines are so blurry.

This all reminds me of the gunman saying "I didn't kill him, the bullets did".

 

[TravisR]

I'm not trying to get into that. I was just saying that Eminem doesn't say it on his records.

 

[Holadem]

No one said Eminem was not racist. Of course, no one said Eminem was racist either. As a matter of fact, no one said or inferred anything about whether Eminem is racist or not...

--
H

 

[MarkHastings]

There are 3 pages of discussion on whether one is racist for using the N word, then someone mentioned Eminem's use of it...so isn't that "inferring whether Eminem is racist or not"?