I just saw the video where Michael Richards was doing a stand up act and used the N-Word, and some audience members were offended and got into a verbal match with Richards until both parties left the room. Now, I'm no racist, and I hate the N-word, and I wasn't really there, but from what I saw it looked like Richards was just being crazy Richards and the audience members (who Richards said were talking through his act anyway) took it too far. Also, the audience members called him "Cracker-***" in response, and that made me think...many African American comedians use these racial slurs in their acts all the time. And yet, nobody gets offended at them. Racism works both ways, and I think that's kind of unfair. I don't know...what do you all think?
Racism can go any which way as long as it holds to the belief that one race is inferior to another. Anyone can be racist, but because of how they were treated and brought to America, some African-Americans feel as though they are entitled to racial slurs (I am African-American myself, so don't go bashing me about that). Personally, it makes no sense to me. I think that racism is racism no matter whose mouth or actions it comes from and its wrong either way. When used in comedy acts, so long as the comedian makes fun of all races and not just a certain racial group, then it's fine. A true comedian makes fun of everyone, especially him/herself.
Well in my opinion...I guess the audience was just a stale pack of people. It's VERY rare to have people burst out like that...but I guess this time there was way too many at the same time... This is always based on the person's perspective on the joke. I for one would laugh, if I were African-American, if I heard this sort of stuff. But then again, who knows...? Well...this is just too bad I guess. =\
I'd have to get some context before I decide who is right and wrong here. Anybody have a link to anything? Sometimes jokes containing elements about race just aren't appropriate, or won't be well received, regardless of whether or not there was racist intent. It is in these situations that discretion and tact must be used. But like I said, I'd like to reserve judgement until I find out a little more information.
He has the right to say what he wants, just as I have the right to type ****** in this post. The word itself is just a word, but it's the meaning behind it that's so bad. If anyone was to say the word, it could result in bad things. In a comedy routine, it shouldn't be a problem, unless of course this man was taking rags on black people throughout his whole show.
He went on the David Letterman show to apologize. He downplayed this and felt really bad, but he hinted at this and here's how I saw it when I saw the clip: Micheal Richards is an extreme man in his stand-up routine, and when these people started heckling and just being disrespectful he tried to go over the top in order to turn the situation funny again and save face, and when the hecklers fought back, tempers were lost on both sides and everything got out of hand. You can search for the clip of the incident on YouTube. I believe it's labled as Richard's "Racist Tirade"
But, see, by going "See? That shocks you", it truly does sound like just part of his act, just him trying to be outrageous. And then when the people who were talking beforehand started saying it was uncalled for, that's when Richards lost his temper. You know what? I get offended when I watch an African-American comedian and he or she starts talking about how "White People" act. I got offended when I watched Comic Relief and George Lopez made a joke that white people act one way, and poor people act a different way. My skin is of the pale whitish pink variety. and my family is always struggling to make ends meet. I'm lucky we have this computer and if we hadn't gotten it when we did we wouldn't have it now. But am I going to write letters? No. I believe in freedom of speech in a comedy act. But I do feel discouraged that if it were a white comedian making the same kind of jokes, that he or she would be tarred and feathered. We need to be equal. Whether that means everybody gets to comfortably make jokes about race or nobody can, it doesn't matter, as long as it's not the case today where it's okay for some people to but not for others too. And I'm not talking about making fun of our own races, since I am all for that since we have to learn to laugh at ourselves and not take ourselves seriously. I'm talking about how an ethnic comedian can blast "whites" but a caucasion comedian can't blast "minorities." And before you flame me, I'd like to make you aware that I am doing the best job I can in using language that doesn't overgeneralize. I know not every ethnic comedian does this. Just about 80% of the ones I've managed to see. It is a common occurance. Plus, even though I'm "white" (a word I hate, for some reason), I'm also Jewish and no stranger to prejudice. In fact, you know what? Being Jewish saves me. I'm already white and male and that, people never cease to incline, makes me responsible for most of the trouble in the world. I'm lucky I don't belong to the faith majority. Look, why do people have to keep demonizing others? Why can't we all just get along, to quote Rodney King and Jack Nicholson? I'm Jewish, but I don't hate German people or Christians. I recognize that there are good and bad people no matter what their ethnic or religious backgrounds are. It's hard psychologically to really take someone who's really different into account, I know, but we need to start. We need to train ourselves. Let's just accept that we are all homo sapiens, and we'll all have differences and similarities between regional subspecies but it's the individual we have to focus on and not the group. There...I've vented....
I'm still not sure because that doesn't show much leading up to the supposed incident. His tone seemed kind of angry, but he was always very loud on Seinfeld, and without seeing the rest of the act it's hard to know exactly how it was all going previous to that. He might have just been using a very loud crazy voice for comedic effect the whole time, and then people just took him too seriously. Or he might just be a ****. Either way, I hate to rush to judgement when it comes to serious allegations like racism.
I agree, with all of you...but you have to put into consideration that there have been reports that he is on drugs... heres the video if you havent seen it.... micheal richards biggotry and heres his appology on Letterman... apology
I think either way, Michael shouldn't have said the N- word, and the audience shouldn't have overreacted.
