Seinfeld alumni Kramer self-destructs in racist tiradevideo, health and lifestyle, television — by TDavid @ 9:10 am PST
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Michael Richards [IMDB] who played the jittery Kosmo Kramer in the hit show Seinfeld was getting badgered by a heckler at a show recently when things turned real ugly. Hecklers are standard fare for comedians, especially when the act is going badly so no news there.
But wait.
The exchange between Richards and the hecker seemed to be playing like a Dice Clay attack the heckler deal — though attacking the audience is a risky move in comedy — until Richards starts dropping the N word on the man who just happened to be an African American. The first time he said the word in anger was damaging enough and definitely not funny but then he repeated the word several more times angrily in further exchanges.
The tirade gets downright excruciating to hear, much less watch, and of course the whole thing was caught on tape. You’ll see several people in the audience understandably leaving. I would have walked out of this show too. There wasn’t anything funny or humorous about Richard’s actions (notice I didn’t say “act” because this wasn’t part of Richard’s routine).
Richards has since apologized (Update 2:25pm PST: changed link to news report of apology because YouTube took down the video of Kramer’s apology at CBS request — thanks Forser) and said he isn’t a racist — yeah, right, just say that word when you lose your temper, apologize and it goes away, not — but it is much too late for that. While I’ve personally never understood why people that are African American can call each other the N word and that’s ok (?), it is well understood as being socially reprehensible and extremely racist for those of the opposite color to use that word in almost any context, especially anger.
Richards better take up a new career now. His days as a comedian will not likely rebound from this one and rightly so. While I think labeling people racists gets thrown around a bit too much and too easily these days that is clearly not the case here. Despicable.
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I think some African-Americans, especially those in hip-hop, use the “N” word as a way of owning it–as if to say, “Well, we’re going to take one of the most hurtful racist epithets hurled at us and make it ours.”
It’s perfectly acceptable for one person of Italian descent to call another such person a “wop”, maybe a little ‘dicier’ (sorry) for a non-Italian to affectionately call an Italian friend “wop”, but it’s definitely unacceptable for a non-Italian to walk through Little Italy addressing strangers of Italian descent that way.
Still, when I see ‘wanna-be thug’ white kids from the suburbs outfitted in hip-hop gear and addressing each other as “N-”, I wonder if the ownership strategy really works.
I know far too many white people (one is too many) who vehemently insist that they’re not racist, yet they will casually throw down the “N” word to disparage black people.
(Didn’t you mean to say “Richards” instead of “Robertson” in your last paragraph, TD?)
Comment by Vince Williams — November 21, 2006 @ 12:35 pm PST
Yes, I did screw that name up and just fixed above. Thank you for the correction, Vince.
Comment by TDavid — November 21, 2006 @ 12:49 pm PST
I found it to be very offensive to here this rant that was not only uncalled for but the comment regarding “hanging upside down with a fork up you ass” as a statement regarding lynching was especially hatefilled. Also the heckler lowered himself to the same mlevel by using racist terms such as “cracker”. It saddens me to see that even in this age we still have so much hate.
I too must mention that the use of the N word between African Americans to me is as offensive as it is with any other person using it. The only time I find it acceptable is when it is used in a dramatic sense to point out ignorance (such as movies and such).
That’s my two cents worth.
Comment by Ron — November 22, 2006 @ 5:42 pm PST
[…] Not even Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock or Howard Stern could have pulled off the lame sketch and made it funny. There is a tremendous amount of sensitivity to racism in all forms in this country right now and it’s spilling over into comedy thanks to bad comedians like Michael Richards, guilty of a exchanging racial barbs with a heckler. […]
Pingback by Feldman’s Kramer-Imus-like meltdown results in PodTech separation by “mutual agreement” » Make You Go Hmm — August 18, 2007 @ 5:34 am PST