Posted on 11/22/2006 3:57:53 PM PST by LouAvul
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday he refused to accept an apology from actor Michael Richards, who spouted a racist rant at a comedy club last week.
But Sharpton said he did agree to meet with Richards to try to start a process to address racism in America.
"I [told Richards] you need to sit down and deal with this," Sharpton told CNN. "This is not about accepting an apology, this is about starting a process to really deal with the continual problem of racism in this country." (Watch Richards' meltdown on stage -- 1:39 )
Sharpton said he got the call from Richards earlier Wednesday.
"I think that what he did was so injurious that he has to sit down with a group and decide how he tries to ... deal with healing the obvious problem he's got in his own mind and his own heart, because it couldn't come out of you if it wasn't in you," Sharpton said.
The incident took place Friday night at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, California.
In a video clip posted on the celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, obtained from an audience member, Richards unleashed a nearly three-minute tirade punctuated by racial slurs at a group of African-American hecklers.
In it, he made a reference to lynching and added shortly before walking offstage, "That's what happens when you interrupt a white man."
TMZ.com is a subsidiary of Time Warner, as is CNN.
Richards apologized Monday on CBS's "Late Show" with David Letterman, saying he is not a racist.
"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," said Richards, who appeared on the show via satellite.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Rev Al made a mess of that whole already messy scene. It became clear early on that he was just obfuscating. What a mess - I lived in Poughkeepsie at the time, too!
Memo to Richards: leave your wallet on the desk on your way out.
Translation to that sentence;...listen pal, you are in a shit load of trouble with the blacks.
My price is as followed to keep my clap trap to a minimum! (insert amount of black mail money as you wish!)
Lets send Al a copy of some of David Allen Coe's early stuff or Blazing Saddles.That would really get him foaming at the mouth.He'd probably have a coronary.
Oh my,what a ....a...an ugly baby.
YOU'RE A RACIST!!!!
(snicker)
Just calling a spade a spade.Oops.Now I did it.Al's gonna have my ass in a sling.
I would guess the mass, liberal, PC media.
Oh lawd....
da Great Spirit o' Tolerance is gonna smite y'all....
My price is as followed to keep my clap trap to a minimum! (insert amount of black mail money as you wish!)
Bulls-eye. Let me add that listening to a racist demanding apologies from somebody who made racist comments is entertaining, in a strange sort of way.
This isn't good.He don't take apologies these days.What's a po
white boy to do.Is there no escaping his wrath?I don't have no money.All I have left is my David Allen Coe CD's and a copy of Blazing Saddles.Would he settle for that?
When is the Democratic Party going to apologize for their craven pretense during the 2004 primary season that Al Sharpton was a serious candidate for President of the US?
I'm guessing that a few decades in jail, forfeiture of all of your entire family's worldly assets and a nationally-televised public flagellation will be the runner-up demand....that's been the track record so far.
Do you enjoy chipped beef on toast and creamed corn? Sorry, but that and lots of grape Kool-Aid awaits you....along with a cellmate named Jamaal. Jamaal don't like honkies.
That's about what this world's headed to.They're going to hound Kramer to his grave.The guy looks like a mental wreck now.It's bad when the IRS won't even touch these guys.If I was Kramer,I'd tell Al,"Look I don't owe you squat.This is between me and the hecklers.It's really nunya damn business".
He made a mistake. He's human. How many of us have blown up and said things we know were wrong. He apologised. If the black community can't accept it, that's their problem. Saying it isn't good enough for them makes them no better than him in my eyes. It's pathetic to demand any more than he's already done. Get over it.
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