Posted on 11/26/2006 6:52:52 AM PST by Sybeck1
What punishment is befitting black men who heckle white comedians?
Lynch 'em.
That's what Michael Richards, better known as Kramer on "Seinfeld," feels is a proper punishment for the black patrons who had the gall to tell him he wasn't funny during his recent standup act in L.A.
On a videotape of the show, Richards yells at the hecklers: "Fifty years ago, we'd have you upside down with a (expletive deleted) fork up your ass."
And he didn't stop there. He called the men "niggers" not once, not twice, but a wincing, hammering six times.
Stung by the criticism -- as if no patron had ever provided immediate, not-quite-constructive feedback to a comic -- Richards lashed out with the most hateful thing he could think of.
It's telling that the first word out of his mouth wasn't the n-word, so this won't be the time and place in which I share my thoughts on that word.
No, Richards' instinct was to go back 50 years, to a time when black men were more likely to know their place.
You only have to go back 42 years, not 50, to find the last recorded lynching in America, if you don't include the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas.
Of the 4,743 lynchings documented between the years of 1882 and 1968, 85 are filed under the category "insult to white person."
And that is the crime of which Richards found his hecklers guilty, the crime that merited a vicious verbal beatdown.
"That's what happens when you interrupt the white man!" he bellows at the end of his tirade, by which time many in the audience had left in disgust.
There are comics who could, could make a slur laughable and quiet a heckler in one fell quip. Richards, we know now, is no Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor or Chris Rock.
I saw Richards' apology on the Late Show with David Letterman -- Larry King's show would have been a better spot to be properly contrite -- and I believe him when he says he's sorry. I don't believe him when he says that these words are contrary to his nature.
I'm not convinced that a rational adult can be provoked -- by hecklers (Richards) or booze (Mel Gibson) or the spontaneity of the moment (Trent Lott) -- to say insanely hurtful things that they later insist are against their nature.
Out of the abundance of the heart, Jesus said in Matthew, the mouth speaks. If hate isn't in you, it can't come out.
I wonder how Richards might have responded if the hecklers were Jewish. I doubt he would have referenced the Holocaust in any remotely admirable way.
But doing bodily harm to black men who act in a way that a white person might deem inappropriate -- whistling at a white woman, daring to register to vote, seeking integration, heckling a comedian -- well, for some people, evidently the thought isn't nearly as repugnant.
The current comic non grata has some soul-searching to do, and I sense his schedule will be free for such introspection.
He might want to look through the 2000 book "Without Sanctuary," a photo gallery of lynchings.
In it, Richards will find black-and-white pictures of crowds gathered under the charred corpse of a black man.
He'll see children grinning for the camera, the strangest of fruit hanging above their heads.
He'll see men hanged on suspicions of crimes their killers later learned they couldn't possibly have committed.
He'll see dozens of soul-scarring images, but I dare him to find anything that's funny.
For my brief thoughts on use of the n-word, see my post on Richards' meltdown on iDivamemphis.com. Find Richards' response to the hecklers and his apology on the David Letterman show on youtube.com.
Contact Wendi C. Thomas at thomasw@commercialappeal.com, or call (901) 529-5896.
Seems we get millions of "Kramers" every other November trying to stomp out the black vote in her eyes.
Thomas is an apologist for all criminal activities committed by blacks and a perpetual victim's activist for blacks.
"I saw the video and thought I had inadvertantly turned on BET."
This is the line I used when I called the Laura Ingraham show last week when her producer asked me what my comment was. He hung up.
Not another Kramer story. How long before this gets used up.
Richards' tirade was bizzare and unwarranted. However, the hecklers lost me when they decided to hire Gloria Allred. Unless they're seeking reimbursement for the cost of admission, they don't have a claim.
I still don't quite understand why this is a news story. I don't really care what this guy's or most people's inner racist views might be, if any.
I guess being a racist is like being an old time communist. This has gone way too far. Richards is the one being lynched here.
Gloria Allred is a NyphoMediac. If it's got a lens, she's got to have it.
The voting booth is the last bastion of unbridled racism in this country. In the privacy of the booth redneck crackers can exercise their unbridled racism to their hearts content. The voting patterns of redneck crackers should be on the public record. /s
Gloria Allred is a NyphoMediac
Gloria Allred is a Nymphomediac
She over-simplifies way too many topics.
What a bold, courageous, daring editorial. </s>
Everyone e-mail this Liberal. Let her know her insanity.
To her
Blacks = Victims that can't do any wrong.
Whites = Oppressors because they run the world.
Asians = Co-Oppresors because they succeed in class.
Bush = Hates Black People because they are poor.
Jews = Evil because they have power.
"Richards is the one being lynched here."
No kidding, this has gotten ridiculous.
Meanwhile, white people still take their lives in their own hands when going into "black neighborhoods". No film at 11.
Oh stop you are hitting the nail on the head...:)
Between this and Brittney's divorce, Tomkat, we have plenty of intellectual reading.
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