What's your take on the Michael Richards incident? I am amazed at the total condemnation from the media and public at large over this so called racist tirade. His response to the hecklers was a failed attempt to push the envelope in what is acceptable language by a white person to direct at a black person.
He is a character and improv actor, trying to be a comedian, who has failed at his attempt. He misread what the audience and public's response would be to him using his character acting training to deliver racially provocative remarks. This does not make him a racist, it makes him a bad comedian.
Surely his career will be ruined and he will be labelled a racist. This, however, is the response we can expect from a society which sees any racist language from a white person as being bigoted and is unable to tell the difference from performance and reality.
I am shocked at the response and the media hubris.
I looked forward to your responses.
For those of you who have not seen the incident yet, check out this video clip at youtube.
9 comments:
hmmmm - not sure that I agree with you on this one....
Oh come on now H. Banana - you have to admit that P. Thunder has a little bit of a point. A white comedian has less leeway when it comes to "ethnic" humour than others do. It is just a fact.
That said, it isn't my impression that he was trying to be funny. Maybe at first, but I think he just honestly lost it up there and was pissed at their heckling. Either way, it almost always crosses the line when someone makes that type of very pointed comment to an individual person as opposed to in general. And either way, it wasn't appropriate.
But comedy is tough. It is about balancing just on that line between acceptable and not acceptable...and sometimes people fall off the fence.
"May he who has never sinned cast the first stone" comes to mind, however.
I do agree he lost it, his anger was visible. I don't agree, however that he was being racist. He misread the implication and the power of the words he was using in the situation.
Anger was the fuel of the tirade, not racism. He took his performance license further than was social acceptable when he adopted a racist "persona" to make his attack.
I believe, whether his remarks were hurdled at group or specific individuals, this situation would have still ended badly for him.
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I'm not watching, so I can maintain my arrogant air on this matter, but it sounds like he just snapped from the heckling, and as you say said things that he thought would be taken as funny or hurtful, not necessarily something he actually feels and believes in. He was talkin' trash back at the hecklers, and because he's a celebrity, it got twisted and blown up.
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I think you are way off on this one. First of all, the video that has been making its way around the net did not include all of his racist comments. If the two men who appeared onthe Today show are to be believed, he said such things as "When I wake up I'm still gonna be rich, but when you wake up, you're still gonna be a n*****". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATWTKhmNWBU) Add that to such comments as "Shut up, 50 years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your a**", show that he had gone way way way beyond comedy. There is nothing remotely amusing or comedic about those statements, just absolute vitriolic anger. And I don't just mean that were really cruel statements. They simply weren't jokes. He was not making jokes.
The most redemptive thing you could say about his tirade is that he was not being racist, he was just really ticked off and wanted to lash out at these people in the most hurtful way possible. In that scenario, he wouldn't be a racist, but just a really mean a**hole who went overboard in handling hecklers (and by the way, calling them hecklers is also a stretch and lets him off the hook too much).
However, I still cannot believe even that lighter scenario. I don't think it's possible to come up with the kind of statements like he did without having a true seed of hate within yourself. Think of it this way. I am Vietnamese, but if I wanted to lash out at Vietnamese people and come up with some really hateful, racist comments about them, I simply could not. Not because I couldn't bear to say such things, but because I simply could not THINK of such things. I (obviously) do not hate Vietnamese people, so I have no fuel to make up such hateful words. Michael Richards clearly found it extremely easy to find the words that he did. In fact, you could say that he found his muse, as the words flowed from him like water. And that, I believe, speaks the most about his true nature and feelings.
I agree there was nothing comedic about his statements. His intention was to sting and demean the individuals involved and he succeeded.
I can not agree that these individuals were singled out because of there race.
Racism is the act of discriminating based on race. The use of race specific hate filled language in general does not concern me, unless it accompanies discrimination. Words hurt, yes, but for me actions speak louder than words.
I'm not convinced he wouldn't have displayed the same type of hateful anger had the heckler been white trailer park trash. Different words, same hate.
Arguable the point can be made, that words alone do discriminate. I take the stand, that one has not been overly affected by discrimination, until they are excluded from an opportunity or a group based solely on such thing as race, gender, etc. No such thing happened here.
Yeah, I'm sure you're right that he would've lashed out at a group of white people as well. But the real question is, what would he have said? He wouldn't have used racist words. Maybe he would've picked on something he saw about them, such as if a few of them were fat. Or maybe he would've said... hell, I don't even know. You see, I couldn't even think of racist things to say to a white person even if I wanted to. And I don't think he could've either. He may not have singled them out because of their race, but the fact remained, he saw their race and that little pent-up racist inside him HAD A FIELD DAY. It came out and did a little jig of joy like it hadn't seen daylight in years.
So to you, someone is racist, based on the words they choose to inflict hurt with?
When I want to hurt someone through words, I use the words which I know will hurt them most. Not the words which are most true. Why? Because in order to gain the upper hand I am willing to say anything.
Could this not be the case with Richards?
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