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 ...
Imagine a white person calling a black woman a "dumb c-word" that is generally used to describe her privates. That was just one of the comments this guy made to or about her.
I accept that some racial jokes are rather funny, if that isn't the whole act. If a black gets up there and tells a some great jokes at white's expense, then moves on to other good material, I've got no problem with it. I do think there are better ways to be funny, but what the hey.
Both these guys focused on whites for their whole act. It was just ugly, and I don't think many would think otherwise. If the tables were turned and a white guy had done this at Hispanic or Blacks' expense, I'd have thought it very problematic as well.
Um, how can an apology be "not enough" when it's not even legally required? It's out there. Either like the guy or don't, but move on.
I hear ya...
No surprise, the uber-racist Al Sharpton has to jump into the fray when the issue should be dead and buried.
Jesse Jackoff cannot be far behind - Al and Jesse will now proceed to try to milk "Kramer" in every way possible -- for money, publicity, shameless self-promotion......
Hey, Al Sharpton, when are YOU going to start a "process" for getting past the virulent vicious racism YOU represent, from the Tawana Brawley scam right up to the present day???
I'm just sarcastically pointing out that a pound of flesh is never enough for the likes of Sharpton. Sharpton would be one of those ghouls like in Iraq who drag bodies around because killing someone wasn't satisfying enough.
Richards better get funny real fast, his pockets gonna need it.
I've fogotten - what atonement did Sharpton make for inciting a mob to burn down a clothing store, killing the owner in the process?
It was very unusual. I am a wisecracker and every wisecracker knows that sometimes what sounds incredibly witty and hilarious inside your head has almost zero comedic power when it is released into the real, 3-D world.
I really have no idea what he was thinking. I honestly think he wasn't thinking, or that his thinking (for whatever reason) was seriously impaired.
It will be hard for him to bounce back from this one, I think.
I think some of these comedians must be absolute scum.
Customers need to draw the line with the managers of these places. Walk out and say why. Publicize the names of these extreme comedians and their clubs. Hit them in the pocketbook. Yes, more scum will probably come to hear them, but decent people will tend not to, and ultimately, decent people are better for business.
Stick it Al.
I agree with your comments. Good points.
"Why? Was Sharpton in the audience when Richards blew up?"
That was my reaction. The guy is a comedian, hellooooo. Not a head of state or even a congresscritter.
As a percentage, I believe blacks to be the MOST racist of any people, it's on full display every day.
The fact that someone like Sharpton is not treated like a crackpot that he is shows how far we've slipped, he has no place in respectable society with his track record. I see no difference between Sharpton and David Duke, except for the fawning over Sharpton, hosting Saturday Night Live, etc.
Why did it take 3 days for this fat blob of hipocrisy to say anything publicly about this incident?
Has anyone considered that Richards may have been just trying to say the most offensive things - whether or not he's a racist - just to piss off the hecklers?
Saying what he said isn't necessarily his true beliefs - it may have been what he felt would offend the most. And there is a difference.
Agreed. Since the beginning of this thing, I've been waiting for any sort of public statement or comment from any of the numerous wealthy and successful black 'comedians' who constantly use "the N word". I haven't heard of any....have I missed it? Has Chris Rock been completely silent throughout this whole spisode?
Maybe someone suggested he take meds, and they are out of balance. He is acting bizzare. But come on, he is a has been comedian, what difference does it make to Al Sharpton, that he should take time out of doing his job(now THAT would be unusual, Shartopn doing his job!) to meet with him. People need to get a grip.
"But Sharpton said he did agree to meet with Richards to try to start a process to address racism in America.'
Apparently Sharpton doesn't think there's enough racist rhetoric between whites and blacks so he's going to get together with Richards to figure out a way to make it worse !!!
I'm groping for an analogy.....
got it
That's like Joseph Stalin refusing to accept Joseph McCarthy's apology.
I mean, McCarthy was a demagogue and a drunk, but c'mon. Uncle Joe was a mass murderer. Michael Richards is a disturbed Hollywierdo who is (most likely) expressing his truly racist inner prejudices, but Al Sharpton is a racist and peddler of hate of epic proportions with decades of hate speech to atone for.
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