I just saw the Letterman segment. man, that was awkward. Richards seemed very scattered, incoherent, depressed and (I think) ashamed. He talked about the need to “confront myself” and “work on myself,” and I don’t know what to think about it. He did at least admit that he head gone into a rage and “flipped out and said this crap,” rather than trying to contrive some arcane story about comedic intent.
[QUOTE=DiosaBellissima]
His apology from Letterman tonight:
David Letterman: “Why don’t you explain exactly what happened for the folks who may not know.”
Michael Richards: “I lost my temper on stage. I was at a comedy club trying to do my act and I got heckled and I took it badly and went into a rage and said some pretty nasty things to some Afro-Americans, a lot of trash talk, and uh…”
Letterman: “And you were actually being heckled or were they just talking and disturbing the act?”
Richards: “That was going on too.”
Richards: "…You know, I’m really busted up over this and I’m very, very sorry to those people in the audience, the blacks, the Hispanics, whites - everyone that was there that took the brunt of that anger and hate and rage and how it came through, and I’m concerned about more hate and more rage and more anger coming through, not just towards me but towards a black/white conflict. There’s a great deal of disturbance in this country and how black feel about what happened in Katrina, and, you know, many of the comics, many of performers are in Las Vegas and New Orleans trying to raise money for what happened there, and for this to happen, for me to be in a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, you know, I’m deeply, deeply sorry. And I’ll get to the force field of this hostility, why it’s there, why the rage is in any of us, why the trash takes place, whether or not it’s between me and a couple of hecklers in the audience or between this country and another nation, the rage - "
Letterman: “But Michael, let me interrupt here for a second and ask a question about had the people doing the heckling or the people who were not paying attention, had they been white or Caucasian or any other race, what would have been the nature of your response then?”
Richards: “It may have happened. It may have happened. You know, I’m a performer. I push the envelope, I work in a very uncontrolled manner onstage. I do a lot of free association, it’s spontaneous, I go into character. I don’t know, in view of the situation and the act going where it was going, I don’t know, the rage did go all over the place. It went to everybody in the room. But you can’t - you know it’s, I don’t - I know people could, blacks could feel - I’m not a racist, that’s what so insane about this, and yet it’s said, it comes through, it fires out of me and even now in the passion that’s here as I confront myself.”
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I hereby nominate this for Most Incoherent Attempt At An Apology Or Explanation Since Nixon In The Rose Garden. 
Do non-bigoted people say such horribly violent and racist things off the top of their heads like that while they are in a rage?
[QUOTE=Zoe]
Do non-bigoted people say such horribly violent and racist things off the top of their heads like that while they are in a rage?
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I’ve never seen anything like Richards’ flipout [what ever happened to responding to hecklers with a dry “Ah yes, I remember my first beer?”], but I’ve seen people who I thought were non-racist saying racist things when they get mad at minorities.
In my opinion, he’s not racist. He was calling that one particular black guy a nigger. He didn’t say all black people are niggers, just that one person. That isn’t racism to me, that’s hatred toward one man.
[QUOTE=OneChance]
In my opinion, he’s not racist. He was calling that one particular black guy a nigger. He didn’t say all black people are niggers, just that one person. That isn’t racism to me, that’s hatred toward one man.
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If you’ve got a problem with a particular black guy you can call him idiot or jerk or asshole or motherfucker. Calling him n----r means your problem isn’t with him in particular, it’s with black people.
Many may not agree with me but in my opinion just because you call someone a nigger, kike, fag, etc. I think it is impossible to conclude that a person just from those comments is a racist/bigot. Those words are just the easiest way to get straight to the heart of a person and truly cut through all they’re defenses and hurt them on a deep level. Now take the Gibson incident on the other hand spouting off about the jews are the source of all the world’s problems, that to me is a lot more evident of real anti-semetism rather than if he had just called a Jewish cop a kike.
semitism*
[QUOTE=pool]
Many may not agree with me but in my opinion just because you call someone a nigger, kike, fag, etc. I think it is impossible to conclude that a person just from those comments is a racist/bigot.
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He didn’t just call him a nigger, though, he made some comments about lynching. If there’s any ambiguity in calling a guy a nigger, there’s even less when you start talking about torturing and lynching him. Richards was probably speaking more out of anger than racism, but that’s not much of a defense. If he lacks the common sense or the ability to get mad at a black guy without calling him a nigger, the best thing that can be said about Richards is that he’s a total moron with anger problems. It’s not like people are overreacting here.
I absolutely agree with you Richards was being a fucking dumbass of the highest caliber and totally lost it. The lynching comment was pretty bad but I still see that as he was more trying to just hurt the guy and get under his skin. Well it definitely worked. I like to give people of the doubt most of the time and I’m not willing to conclude just based on this that he is a racist, just as I’m not ready to conclude the audience member calling him a cracker ass motherfucker is racist.
“benefit of the doubt” Damnit :smack:
[QUOTE=pool]
just as I’m not ready to conclude the audience member calling him a cracker ass motherfucker is racist.
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And you shouldn’t: the audience member had much, much clearer provocation for his mild insult than Richards did for his harsh insult.
In the end they are all just words it is up to you how to react to them. I’ve seen black people not fly off the handle after being called a nigger by a white person. And the audience member clearly stayed pretty calm t
-though he was clearly upset- dangit hit submit too soon.
[QUOTE=pool]
In the end they are all just words it is up to you how to react to them.
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Granted. Still, not all insults are of equal severity, and by any measure, what Richards said to the heckler was worse than what the heckler said back.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
… so I wonder why he even works if heckling (which you’d think somebody who’s been in stand-up as long as he has would be used to) drives him that batshit crazy.
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Has he? The Wikipedia entry on Richards relating to this episode includes the following:
The source includes this direct quote:
[QUOTE=pool]
From Wiki:
Hmmm… I just read that the club permanently banned him. I guess they only banned him after the public outcry, which I can’t help thinking is kinda slimy: either his conduct itself was ban-worthy or it wasn’t. Politics.
[QUOTE=Green Bean]
When someone “goes off without thinking,” that means that they say things that they ordinarily would have repressed. Which means those thoughts were definitely in there.
Look, no matter how angry I’ve ever been at a black person, no matter what kind of horrible things I may have been thinking, I’ve never thought of lynching and I’ve never thought of the word “nigger.” Those thoughts are just not in my head, so they’d never come out of my mouth.
I’m not claiming that I’m miss perfect when it comes to racism or anything. I’m just saying that the fact that Richards blurted all that out is evidence that he was thinking it. And if he was thinking it, that makes him a racist.
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Horseshit! For this post, I’m not talking about Richards or his comments or meltdown, which I do not defend in the least. I’m talking about Green Bean’s assertions that if the word “nigger” enters your head – even if you’re just temporarily angry – you’re a racist.
Let me tell you how I learned about racism: I was about 8 and jazzed as hell about riding with one of my Chicago cop uncles (I had three of them) in his squad car, when, spying an aged black man with a cane crossing the street ahead, he gunned the engine, raced across the intersection, headed right for him, and – stopping at the last possible moment – blared his siren, scaring the living shit out of the guy and causing him to fall on the pavement.
That event permanently seared my mind and my memory and my consciousness. Not a lynching, perhaps, but it made the same impact on me. No lesson on the mindless evil of racism could have shocked and repelled me more. I immediately hated my uncle (fortunately my family soon moved far away), and every time I see a racist action or remark, I’m reminded of its horror. To consider me an anti-racist is a gross understatement.
However, I grew up in America. Racist epithets exist and one or another of them will come to mind at one time or another, unbidden, no matter how anti-racist we are. You are dead wrong in your assertions! No one has iron control over their mind. All you can ask is that we repress our thoughts to the extent that we don’t voice those words or act on them. Nothing more.
There’s no way to know if Richards is a racist based solely on what he said. All we can say is that he uttered racial slurs. Isn’t that enough to criticize him for without condemning him for his thoughts, too?
[QUOTE=levdrakon]
Mel isn’t a stand up comedian, so he doesn’t get a pass.
Comedians get to tread on all sorts of territory that would get your ass fired in any other job. But when we’re sitting in the audience, we laugh and go “uh-huh, that’s so true.”
Chris Rock talking about niggers stealing your shit is funny. Richards making a point about the power of that word didn’t come across as funny. Fair enough.
But a drunk pulled over by the cops and spouting some racial & sexist epithets isn’t the same as a comedian falling really flat.
You’re the one putting your own spin on it. People were clearly laughing and there was no discernible “nervous” laughter until he said “nigger.” Then the audience reacted as conditioned. “What did he say? That was funny. Wait, an African American didn’t find it funny. Oh, that’s just not cool, man.”
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I couldn’t possibly disagree more with your interpretation of it, but I highly recommend that you apply for a job as Michael Richards’s publicist. He could use your creative talents.
[QUOTE=you with the face]
Did you find that comment to be funny, with the knowledge that he was talking to a black guy and that he was referencing lynching?
If you do think it’s funny, then what the hell is wrong with you?
If you don’t think it’s funny, then why do you think that would be funny to the audience? And isn’t that idea kind of troubling to you? That the audience would find that type of humor laugh-out loud hilarious?
I mean, you keep pointing to the audience’s reaction as if to say that Richards’ behavior was excused because some goddamn knuckleheads thought he was funny. But pardon me if I don’t find much comfort in the idea *that a bunch of goddamn knuckleheads thought he was funny. *
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It’s well to remember that it is only levdrakon’s strange opinion that the audience was laughing at what Richards was saying. Everyone else seems to think it was the nervous laughter of people watching someone commit career suicide.