Posted on 11/25/2006 12:35:32 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Let's take a closer look at so-called comedian Michael Richards' racist outburst that is capturing so much press and airtime. The incident, and what has ensued, tells me more about the overall pathetic moral state of our country than it does about racism.
Richards claims he's not a racist, despite attacking a black heckler at a comedy club where he was performing with a string of the most inflammatory, demeaning, and vulgar racial slurs.
Is it possible that he's not? Maybe. It's possible that he's just a moron.
But check out the deep soul searching that this inane incident has provoked across the nation.
The general sentiment is pretty much captured in a column by The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson who sees in what happened here sad proof that "racism is not dead" in America.
I am in complete agreement with Mr. Robinson that racial animosity lives. But I certainly didn't need Michael Richards' imbecility as proof of this.
If we should be thinking about anything, it should be to try and understand why, after all these years, racial consciousness persists.
As satisfying as it might be for some to watch, Mr. Richards groveling around on television apologizing isn't going to help much. Nor are any sums that left wing legal entrepreneur Gloria Allred might extract from him. Nor are apologies to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (the knee-jerk assumption that these two black ministers speak for 40 million black Americans I think is equally racist).
Allow me to suggest that racism and racial consciousness persist and loom large because we choose it to be this way.
Eugene Robinson says that Michael Richards did not see a heckler. Instead, says Robinson, he saw a black heckler. But we live in a country that insists on placing all its citizens in racial categories and using measures of how these categories stack up as measures of national decency.
Every major institution _ business, government, educational _ one way or another keeps track of how many blacks it has on board. Every major corporation has a diversity officer to make sure the colors of the beans are in order. Every corporation gets surveys from the NAACP asking them how many blacks they've got.
When I get a loan from the bank, the loan officer sheepishly asks if it's OK to report that I'm black.
We have institutionalized race consciousness to the very core of our society, so it should be evident why it persists. It's the law.
These laws, by transforming human beings into racial categories, dehumanize blacks and whites. Blacks feel less personally responsible for their own lives and whites are forced to relate to blacks as beans to count rather than human beings. One result is animosity of blacks toward whites and whites toward blacks.
Which leads to the second, and related, point. Racism is no longer understood as a moral problem. It is a political problem.
The success of the civil rights movement of the 1960's was its moral power. The few prevailed over the many because they had moral conviction _ truth _ on their side.
Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech was not a speech. It was a sermon. He talked about character and exhorted Americans to strive for liberty because we are "God's children."
King was not an impractical man. He knew that laws needed to be passed to deal with segregation and the absence of equality under the law. But he also knew that law "cannot change the heart" and that for us to become a greater nation, we needed to be a more moral nation.
This said, consider the circumstances of the Richards incident. It took place in a comedy club in Los Angeles. These places are cesspools of profanity and degrading sexual and scatological humor, delivered in a haze of alcohol.
The black heckler yelled out, "It's not funny. That's why you're a reject. Never had no shows, never had no movies. 'Seinfeld' _ that's it."
This tastelessness doesn't justify Richards' racist diatribe. But on the other side of the coin, blacks who want a better world ought to get out of the gutter.
For me it is commentary on our overall sorry moral state that as news shows obsessed over this mindless incident, they totally ignored an Associated Press story this same week reporting that out-of-wedlock births in the U.S. reached 37.5 percent in 2005, a record high. The figure for blacks is almost double this.
Perhaps this holiday season it is worth considering that racism will be with us as long as evil remains within us. The answer will not come from politicians and lawyers.
It will come only when we raise ourselves up. Only then, in the words of Dr. King, will we be able to say "thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
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I live in LA, and have long noticed that of all the different types of celebrities, (singers, dancers, actors, comedians,) the comedians are usually the least pleasant in person. I think perhaps they had rough childhoods or something which caused them to turn to humor as a defense...or as a weapon. I truly don't know what it is.
IMHO, if Michael Richards were saavy, he would take advantage of the free infamous publicity, turn his reputation from being a standup punchman for Seinfeld and become a new millenium version of Lenny Bruce.
Love Star Parker! I just went into her archives and skimmed some of her past articles. What a brilliant mind, beautiful heart and gift with the keyboard she has.
Please add me to the ping list. Thanks!
How true.
I think he was on a bit of a soapbox.
I was trying to point out that racism is not de facto a political issue. And it certainly wasn't something invented by anglo-saxons.
I am not sure there can ever be an answer to personal racism. Racism has it's roots in tribal behavior, and if you start thinking primitive, I'm talking Lord of the Flies type societies, distrust of strangers has it's place.
As far as Richards is concerned, he basically lost his cool and simply struck back. (or perceived he was striking back). The commentary might be made that if the words he used had no value or meaning, and people weren't so overly sensitive to them, he woulda been seen as making a complete fool of himself.
In no way am I defending racism. But it is part of the psychology of every living animal. Hell, even dogs join in packs and are highly suspicious of strangers.
Hmmm. I seem to recall that the article mentioned the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King. I also seem to recall that the post I was originally replying to had mentioned the Civil Rights Movement.
The American Civil Rights Movement was fought- by and large- in the South. The two are inextricably linked. If we are discussing the Civil Rights Movement and the end to institutional racism we can't leave the South out of the equation.
Also, another poster I commented to had mentioned people being discriminated against because they were perceived as outsiders. I pointed out that blacks were never outsiders in the South, they were always a part of our culture- they were within our culture. As a young boy I never perceived blacks as being outsiders.
However... In the South of my youth, there was a small class of people who lived among us who we definitely considered outsiders and we called those people 'Yankees'. They came from a different culture. They spoke funny. Had strange ideas about things and didn't eat grits or catfish. They also made war on us, burned Atlanta and occupied us afterwards. When I was I boy, I could tolerate blacks just fine. But I hated Yankees with a passion and to tell the truth, I still don't trust 'em and from what I understand Georgia has become positively infested with 'em in the last ten years or so. It's a shame...
How so? I don't like Affirmative Action any more than anybody else. I don't feel any particular guilt about what happened in the South before I came along. Why should I? I honestly just don't care. But I can't sit still while people claim most people back in the 60s were happy to see the Civil Rights Movement come along. Where I lived- the South- it was enacted by force. You don't have to use the military to force something on people if they're happy about it in the first place.
Amen!!
I don't see calling someone not funny equivalent to using a racial slur. One only applies to that particular person, one is an insult to everyone in that particular race. One is criticism of his choice of jokes, the latter an attack over something that no one has any control over.
But, come on...people can call me anything they choose...I'm just not gonna care! People are so sensitive about the most ridiculous things. An insult reflects more on the individual hurling it, than the recipient. Another way of say it is this: It doesn't matter what someone calls you, it matters only what you respond to.
Excuse me but this is what Star considers "the gutter"?
Unless this statement was sanitized for my protection this seems like it would fall more under "constructive criticism".
BTW, most of what passes for comedy is NOT funny. Perhaps if more people would stand up and tell the "comedians" this they might be motivated to learn the serious art of comedy
Notice that not one member of the audience is offended or leaves at anytime, in fact they are wildly clapping and shouting words of approval.
I suggest the you do not watch this video unless you are familiar with Chris Rock and his points of view.
Chris Rock educates on the difference between "black people and niggas"
As it should, because it was "bigotry," not "racism."
You might also consider the current disrespect for objective definitions that is so popular these days, especially where it should never be found -- among those whose livelihood is derived from trafficking in words and their definitions: the oracles of the media.
I read your post to say that the south was historically prejudiced and Richards demonstrated that. If I mistook what you meant, I apologize.
I do believe that segregation, whether institutional or by mutual agreement (or unilateral choice for that matter) builds distrust. That is demonstrated in the different ethnic communities in large cities all over the country as well as the racial divides that were in effect in the south. Perhaps that was the point you were making.
It is still true to an extent, but it is not as bad as it used to be.
Of course you realize that.
When I first traveled to the west coast some 20 years ago, I met my cousin from LA. He was a Celtics fan because they were a team that was able to "put five white guys on the floor and win an NBA championship."
OK, that was rather bigoted, and my jaw just about fell on the floor when he said it. I did not expect that at all. We know it is out there, but in truth it is not "institutionalized" now as it was, but that is so pretty much to a fault in some circumstances.
Your dad sounds a bit like my dad, but recall also that they were products of their time.
Things are better, but still not perfect. Better is good, and better again is the goal.
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