I’m still interested in where folks think Richards should go from here. If we assume that he truly wants to try to make amends for his acts (not necessarily a safe assumption–I’m making it for the sake of argument), what should he do next?
Daniel
What does he want, a cookie? You’re not SUPPOSED to be a member of the KKK you low expectation-havin’ motherfucker!
Are you calling Richards or me a motherfucker?
I’m sure he’ll “meet with the community leaders” (sigh…) which will satisfy some and probably leave others even more annoyed than they were to begin with. Actions (and money) speak louder than words. If he can prove that this was a moment of temporary insanity he can fall into his audience’s good graces again. It may be a career-ending move for him, though. And he’ll have to live with that.
I disagree.
Some appallingly racist jokes are, it must be said, funny. Even so, they remain inexcusable. As to Richards, he’s guilty of bad comedy. I really don’t believe he’s a racist though. Just a very muddled guy who tried for a Lenny Bruce schtick and failed miserably.
I disagree. You have to have a career to end a careeer.
How many people are going to have to dispute your version of it before you come to your senses? I don’t understand why you feel a need to take the particularly loathsome position of defending this man, but play on.
Away.
But seriously, he fucked up. I don’t think there’s much he can do to make people forgive and forget. I’m sure he regrets what happened, but that regret doesn’t absolve him of anything. Who wouldn’t regret making a fool out of himself like that?
He’s not on Mel Gibson’s level, so his career is basically done for. I don’t even think he could get a spot on the Surreal Life if he wanted it.
I think you’ve confused me with someone else. I’ve only one post in this thread, and I only said that I don’t know why he chose those words.
More than a few posters here have had trouble with this concept.
You don’t have to run around in Klan regalia, beat or kill people or deny them jobs to be a bigot. There are plenty of parlor bigots who spout stereotypical invective, either IRL or online. They may never do anything overt to another person, but they’re still bigots, and their words may well encourage others to commit overt acts of bigotry.
Though screaming at black club patrons using vile invective and suggesting that they deserve lynching is pretty overt in my book.
Interesting what comes out of a person under stress. For some reason this tempest reminded me of an anecdote about a former Cardinals manager (Johnny Keane, I think), who early in his career was known for his non-confrontational demeanor. He supposedly had a run-in with an umpire, went back to the dugout and then called out the ump by name, saying “You know what you are…you’re a mean man is what you are!” Oooooh.
The man he succeeded as Cards manager in the early '60s (Solly Hemus), coincidentally, fell out of grace with his black players after he inserted himself into the lineup, got in a dispute with an opposing (black) player and started screaming the N-word at him.
Wonder how well that would play today.
I don’t *know * if Michael Richards is racist (in the conventional, I’m not gonna give a Black person a job, etc., kind of way), but something about this doesn’t sit easy with me.
On the one hand, I totally agree with those who believe that Richards’s use of the word “nigger,” especially in the context in question, indicates that he has some repressed racial shit going on. I agree because I’ve long believed that anyone who is raised and educated in American society has been exposed to some really virulent–if somewhat backdoor–racist inculcation, and absorbs what they’ve been exposed to entirely without knowledge or volition. (I like to refer to this as acculturated racism.)
On the other hand, though, I can see–to *some * degree–where the folks who say that he was just going for the most obvious way to hurt the heckler are coming from. I mean, I’ve been in arguments before, and if were really trying to hurt someone’s feelings, I’ve gone for the most obvious weapon available to me. Or, rather, I’ve been *tempted * to, but have manged, for the most part, to not give in to the urge.
So no, I don’t know if this dude is racist, but like I said, I believe that he, like many (most?) Americans, harbors at least some degree of racial animus, so I wouldn’t be as quick as some others on this board to dismiss the possibility.
And, for those who claim/are tempted to claim that merely thinking the word “nigger” is not indicative of racial animus, consider this:
I am a 36-year-odl Black man. I attend what I’m led to believe is a world-renowned university in NYC (it’d damn well better be, for what it’s costing me!), I work a decent job, I’ve never committed a crime, and I don’t dress, walk, speak, or in any other way demonstrate thuggish tendencies. Yet, when I’m out and about in NYC, in Bayonne, NJ (where I live–we are allowed to say where we live, right?), or Philadelphia (my old stomping grounds), I’m assaulted, with disturing frequency, with indicators of what non-black (mostly white) people think of anyone who looks like me: white women hold on tighter to their purses (cliched, I know, but it really does happen), white guys pat their pockets (where I assume they keep their wallets/cash–and thanks, BTW, for letting me know which pocket to go for when I swoop in for the take :rolleyes: ), or white folks tend to make sure their car doors are locked when I’m waiting to cross the street, and while they avoid direct eye contact with you, they most *certainly * watch you askance as you pass them on the sidewalk.
Now, mind you, the people who do this (and a whole lot of white folks and some non-black folks–perhaps even some of you on this very board–do this, and probably without even realizing it) don’t *say * anything. I know what they’re thinking, though, and they’re thinking the only thing they could possibly be thinking in situations such as I’ve described: nigger. Fuck my character, fuck my intelligence, fuck whatever my accomplishments might be. All they (think they) know about me, and all they’re interested in knowing about me, is that I am…a nigger. And it happens to countless black people (especially black men) every. Goddamn. Day.
Do you think it’s so harmless now to merely *think * the word, that it’s not indicative of some seriously fucked-up shit?
P.S.–And just for the record (and you’ll just have to trust me on this), I’m not one of those black guys who’s always railing about white foks this, white folks that, blah-blah-blah, let’s blame it all on the white man, blah-blah-blah, black people can do no wrong and Bill Cosby’s a race traitor, blah-blah-blah. Pehaps I didn’t need to point this out, but…just in case.
I congratulate you on your very successful career. I know this because you no doubt have been able to overcome the prejudice against people of your skin tone with your amazing psychic mind-reading ability.
When are you trying out for the Randi prize?
Was this directed at L’il Pluck for his narrative about how people respond differently to black guys than to people who aren’t black guys?
I hope not, but I can’t guess what else you might mean by it.
If it is, riddle me this: how is it that I (not by any means a black man) have never, ever had someone clutch their purse tighter or lock their car doors when I approach?
How is it that this is not the first time I have heard a black man report that this happens to him regularly?
If he (along with all the other black men I refer to) is imagining it all, how do you explain MY experience (or am I imagining it all too)?
:rolleyes:
Sure, he fucked up. I’m not convinced that he fucked up in an unforgiveable fashion, however: he lost his temper in a nasty way, but I believe that what he did is far, far less bad than, say, punching someone in the nose would have been.
And I can forgive someone for punching someone else in the nose; why couldn’t I forgive this guy for his asshole behavior?
That assumes that he is genuinely penitent.
Daniel
I am not questioning the actions, I am questioning the deprecations we supposedly leave unuttered but nonetheless thought. Even Jesse Jackson understands that you would avoid strange people in a bad section of town, it doesn’t mean that you are slurring them in your mind.
I’ve never called anyone that, not even in my mind. Of course, that will be hard to avoid since it is now a Blue Elephant. But the number of times that will inevitably happen can’t compare to the number of times I’ve been singled out by my race, which is undoubtedly several orders of magnitude less than most black people, but at the same time infinitely more times than how often I personally do it.
Yep, definitely, which is why I wish people, in most instances*, would just stay faaaaar away from it.
And like (I believe) you with the face, I feel like slapping (the holy hell out of) black kids when I hear them throw that word around willy-nilly, especially when they do it in public. I mean, damn!, do they know how heart-breakingly stupid they sound?!
*Except for scholarly usage, Dave Chapelle/Chris Rock-making-a-point-wise, etc.
You’re only a racist if you publicly own it. In situations such as this, apologizing and admitting that your words were racist but you in fact are not is all the proof the general public requires. Sprinkle in some PR work with the offended parties’ racial leaders if necessary. It’s a time-tested formla for atonement.
I can more easily forgive some one some rash action indicative of underlying substance abuse problem, anger management problem etc, more easily than I can forgive a racist belief. I believe that w/appropriate treatment and education, the substance abuse, anger management etc can be corrected. I have a much more difficult time understanding how some one who has had the advantages that Richards has had (career, education etc.) who would still harbor core racist values. It’s like finding out that your teacher believes the world is flat. How can anyone w/reasonable intelligence, travel around in upper circles of society and still think in terms of lynching = funny?