Even worse than Barbra with the "F" word, Richards says "N" word

Parent Cafe
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<p>"Does this really come as a surprise? Are we really expecting much better from the Hollywood crowd … the good liberals who live in mansions and love to have their pillows fluffed at 1600 Penn Avenue? Aren’t they simple actors who try to please a crowd in a mnost hypocritical manner? "</p>

<p>What happened has nothing to do with politics.</p>

<p>This incident as well as the Gibson one simply underline that there are probably more closet racists and antisemetics and bigots than most people realize.</p>

<p>For the many people who somehow think that things now are O.K. for African Americans because racism allegedly has ended in this country, perhaps this incident will serve as a wake-up call. Most people now have the good sense not to make bigoted comments in public. Still, they have those same bigoted thoughts that can come raging out only of their mouths when they are drunk or upset.</p>

<p>In daily life, however, such people demonstrate their bigotry by finding excuses not to hire, rent to or, yes, even accept people whom they hold bigoted thoughts against. When sober and calm, such bigots politely give thoughtful-sounding reasons for their actions, but rampant bigotry is actually behind them.</p>

<p>I bet that Richards has encountered many black people who prior to his tirade had no idea what kind of racist thoughts about black people were in his mind.</p>

<p>I’ve seen research that indicated that black people encounter racism far more than they realize. That’s because most racists don’t use the “n” word in public, but simply find reasonable sounding reasons not to do certain things. They’ll say things like, “I’m sorry, but our last apartment was just rented. We’ll put you on our waiting list.”</p>

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<p>Allmusic: I haven’t seen Borat, but I from what I’ve heard, it’s central premises are 1)let’s make fun of Southerners and Midwesterners, and 2)let’s make fun of people from an “obscure” (to us) Asian Muslim nation. </p>

<p>Neither approach seems to me to be good for fostering real understanding between real people (as opposed to stereotypes). I know an awful lot of red state liberals (and blue state Midwesterns who don’t seem to get recognized as such) who are a little tired of blanket stereotyping, of any kind.</p>

<p>Racists are racists–not because they’re Hollywood types, and not because they’re not.</p>

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<p>I don’t know Michael Richards’ political views. I’m not sure that it should be assumed that his leanings are to the liberal side. Not all actors, and certainly not everyone associated with the “Hollywood community” are liberals. I honestly don’t see that this incident has anything at all to do with politics. Nor do I see it as analogous to the Streisand incident, but moreso to Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic diatribe. </p>

<p>Individuals don’t suddenly become racists or anti-Semites when they’re drunk, or under the influence of drugs, or when they’re angry. Those feelings were there all along.</p>

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<p>That’s exactly my point, AAM. I have had people explain to me that when in a drunken bar situation, such as the Borat one, people resort to group mentality, and even those who really, really, really are not bigots (their emphasis), the heat of the groupie moment makes them say and do things that they don’t really feel or believe.</p>

<p>I say hogwash. I think most likely Richards is racist, and most likely the people in Borat in the bar were bigots. People who do not harbor such feelings do not let them spill out so easily otherwise.</p>

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<p>“What happened has nothing to do with politics.”</p>

<p>Really, aren’t you more forgiving of people who happen to be cut off the same cloth? </p>

<p>On the other hand, it has everything to do with the repulsive hypocrisy of our public figures … and the utter naivet</p>

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<p>I’ll confess. I talked Mrs. P2N into seeing Borat. It was a total waste of time and money. I wanted to walk out and get my money back, but I kept hoping it would actually be funny at some point.</p>

<p>It was awful and insulting.</p>

<p>Save your money. And, to top it all off, I then had to apologize to Mrs. P2N for dragging her there to begin with. A lose-lose situation for sure. :(</p>

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<p>I wonder which of the “religious right” who have been referenced on this forum (whose homophobic, racist and bigoted attitudes are “de rigueur”) have not been excused because they have not apologized. I take it specifics are not necessary in all cases.</p>

<p><people who=“” do=“” not=“” harbor=“” such=“” feelings=“” let=“” them=“” spill=“” out=“” so=“” easily=“” otherwise.=“”> Some more easily than others. :rolleyes:</people></p>

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<p>“it has everything to do with the repulsive hypocrisy of our public figures”</p>

<p>I agree that comedians are public figures, but I don’t see the hypocrisy, unless Richards has been involved with the Anti-Defamation League or the NAACP or something. Being a closeted racist and then coming out of the closet, so to speak, is not hypocritical unless you were making a big deal about racial harmony while you were in the closet. Anyway, racism is a pretty big sin on its own; it doesn’t need hypocrisy to give it force.</p>

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<p>Wow, there’s some great presumptions being jumped to here. </p>

<p>Why is there a presumption that Richards is liberal or conservative or ???. I have met him a couple times and my only conclusion from that would be that he is quite odd, introverted, just plain weird in his demeanor and strikes me as quite the loner.</p>

<p>He apologized at length last night on the Letterman show and I believe on other news outlets. Seinfeld was a guest on Letterman and had arranged for Richards to be on (by way of remote connection). As an aside, Seinfeld was clearly originally on to promote today’s DVD release of the Seinfeld 7th season…don’t think this was what he was hoping for to promote sales.</p>

<p>In any event, Richards’ behavior was clearly atrocious. He was attempting to break in some new material, he got heckled and just lost it-the victimized sensitive artist. </p>

<p>Not sure this represents the “Hollywood” crowd or any crowd. It was the act of an individual. </p>

<p>It definitely does represent the old affliction of opening your mouth before your brain is in gear.</p>

<p>As far as Borat, I believe the premise there is to give people the opportunity to show their own true colors, prejudice etc. It is not that Mr. Cohen (Borat) is a bigot etc., he’s giving others the chance to “out” themselves for the bigotry, prejudice, hatred they hold inside.</p>

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<p>Be fun to hang out in a Boston bar into the wee hours and feel the lllllllllove vibe.</p>

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<p>Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) IS a Jew himself, and was absolutely providing opportunities for people to show their bigotry. What is amazing was how easy it was for this bigotry to be revealed.</p>

<p>You just can’t make this stuff up:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1xXERFt_Zg[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1xXERFt_Zg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>And his beef against the Kazakhs is…?</p>

<p>No, you can’t make this stuff up…but whatever they’re saying, it’s them, not an entire area of the country talking.</p>

<p>Wholesale condemnation just makes it harder to explain how tolerant we liberals are.</p>

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<p>I agree completely Garland. </p>

<p>However, did you not find that clip disgraceful? Do you think that in all areas of the country you would find people hooting and hollering about throwing Jews down the well? </p>

<p>It’s simply that some people’s innate bigotry is revealed rather easily, and can’t be blamed on a movie crew or an audience (as in the case of Richards). Perhaps it has to do with regionality, or perhaps with education (or lack thereof), with experience, exposure, or whatever. </p>

<p>The question is whether ALL people are innately bigoted, or whether one can be educated from bigotry.</p>

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<p>I don’t think the guy is a racist, at least no more than most of us. I watched the video closely. What I saw was a guy who probably has some issues—you know, some sensitivities, some anger, etc., and who when some hecklers hit him in a sensitive spot, went with the flow and hit them back however and wherever he could. I’d bet he was up there in a very tight spot inside himself when those guys started pushing his insecurities, and when he saw they were black, he instinctively looked for the biggest gun, metaphorically speaking, he could find. He reasoned that those guys would be particularly vulnerable to America’s history. So, he pulled out the bazooka and used it. I’m sure the very moment he pulled the trigger, probably even as he was in the middle of it, he saw how damaging it was. Sure he did, because he seemed to try to make some sort of philosophical point about it right in the middle of it. But the damage was done, and all hope of fixing it while on stage would have been shot had he just stopped and apologized on the spot.</p>

<p>I do hope yall don’t get weird on me and claim I am trying to defend this guy. I don’t think I would go where he went in a million years, and I have been under a lot more pressure than he was at that moment. I am just saying that I don’t think this guy is fundamentally so much more dreadful than most of us. Shoot. I remember many times having some guy show me disrespect or rubbing me the wrong way when I did nothing at all to him. I was riding in my car one evening, for example, wearing a suit, coming from work with my wife, basically being a jolly good ol ‘Merican, when this cop pulled me over and started really harassing me. I was not speeding or anything. I have no record with the law or nothing at all. I have never even had a speeding ticket. Yet this guy was running me down. It is no fun having some guy putting you down in front of your wife, I’ll tell you that. And the mere fact the guy was white caused all kinds of stuff about slavery and Jim Crow and everything else to well up inside me. When it did, it took a good bit of self-control not to just go after that blasted cop. The cop was hitting me where I live, you see – and I think he knew it. Perhaps the only difference between the Richards guy and me is that I was able to control myself as I was taking the hit, and he wasn’t. Then again, there is probably no difference at all because given that the cop had a gun and the might of the government behind him, I had more pressing reasons to keep a lid on what was really going on inside.</p>

<p>So I am not about to just get all high and mighty and dump on the comic just because he had some racist thoughts and let them fly. Its not like the guy was running a neo-nazi organization or something. There are circumstances here that we need to at least consider. I’d bet when provoked in some way, a whole BUNCH of y’all here have had the sort of thoughts this guy vented. Maybe you did not let them fly in as rash and boorish a way as he did, but I’d bet they were essentially the same sorts of things. Some of you have expressed racist thoughts among your friends and relatives. The minute some black thug drives by in one of those god-awful pimpmobiles, blasting that god-awful hip-hop stuff, and disrupting your peace, you know you start bringing race into your anger. Are you telling me you can see those thug-looking guys and remain so free of racism you will only think “Gosh! I really would like it if those nondescript boys would not play their nondescript music so loudly!”? Maybe I am just really disgusting, but I don’t believe it for a minute. Yet, most of us can see people like [url= <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC41Siq43lI]THIS[/url”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC41Siq43lI]THIS[/url</a>], and never bring race into it at all.</p>

<p>I am trying to come up with the proper response to this Richards guy. I know getting all shaken up about it and forbidding his words ain’t the answer. And dismissing it as an understandable mistake isn’t the answer either. I think his is a different situation from Mel Gibson’s, since it seems Gibson wasn’t even provoked. I actually think Gibson is more dangerous than Richards because I suspect he really is the sort who secretly funds neo-nazis. But I think Richards’s situation is more important than Gibson’s because it is probably the sort of racism that lurks all across and inside America. It is what really gives the word ■■■■■■■■ its power. It is the fact of the widespread abuses of the past that were once such an overt part of American culture, the whole rotten history, that makes it so hurtful.</p>

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<p>Dross, that was a very thoughtful and humane response on your part - to try to understand what provoked Richards’ outburst, and to give the guy some benefit of the doubt. I personally believe he’s profoundly shaken by what happened, by his loss of control, the nature of his outburst and the inevitable career-ending potential of this debacle.
But.
He did reach out, as you say, not just for the gun, but for the bazooka. And of course, there’s no way to minimize damage from a bazooka, that weapon packs a mighty punch. The bazooka is something we as a society need to take seriously lest it hurt more than just a few rowdy comedy club patrons. In the end, maybe Richards showed us all just how – hmmm – handy bazookas are for some people, maybe all too many people – but unfortunately for him and his career, he showed just how accessible it is to him in particular.</p>

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<p>‘…because it is probably the sort of racism that lurks all across and inside America.’</p>

<p>^Dross, I hope not. It’s time for America to move beyond such thinking. It’ll take years, but while they still exist the active elements of such racism are fewer and farther between. It may be slow, it may seem like forever. But it is better now than ever before.</p>

<p>The collective reaction here is a bit of evidence of that.</p>

<p>(btw…one would suspect such rednecks would be selected for extinction)</p>

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<p>My take was that he thought the hecklers were rap moguls and was offering an audition for their next record. Obviously it was quite embarassing when they turned out just to be ordinary blokes.</p>

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<p>How sad. Sad that as much as we like to think we’ve progressed, there are still people out there who choose to see color and differentiate as such. The “N” word is such a vile word. My grandmother was a racist and I’m said to say that it trickled down a bit to my mother, who would love to think she’s not a racist, but has said things that lead me to believe otherwise. Years ago, when my sister was married, my parents didn’t particularly care for her husband. As long as I live, I will never forget these words from my mother’s mouth … “Well, at least he’s not a drug dealer, an alcoholic or a black man.” WHAT!!! My mother and I had a heated conversation. I guess I just don’t get it. I don’t know if it’s fear, ignorance, hatred or what that causes people to react the way Richards did. Whatever it is, there is no excuse. I don’t doubt that Richards is sorry … sorry he realized he probably is really a racist. I wish I could live to see the day where color plays no part in our world. Sadly, it’s been happening for hundreds of years, so it’s doubtful it will happen in my lifetime, but I have faith in our future generation.</p>

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<p>OMG!! i saw that on youtube today and I lost all respect for Richards. Now everytime when I watch seinfeld, im gonna want to throw my food at the tv and booo</p>

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<p>This will certainly be severely career damaging to MR as it should be. In situations this eggregious, apologies ring a bit hollow. And it seems that, since he was performing in a small comedy club, his career is not exactly soaring.</p>

<p>BUT if we are totally honest, some bigotry lurks in all us. That was something which shocked me when a 9th grade civics teacher made that observation many years ago. It may be Muslims, the French, evangelical Christians, Hollywood liberals…the list is endless. But if we are brutally honest, some measure of bigotry is inside all of us to some degree.</p>