Seinfeld's Kramer freaking loses it!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!

No matter how much you want to believe otherwise, there is such a thing as Right and Wrong. Calling black people "nigger" in rapid-fire succession because they heckled you at work is WRONG. I can't believe that someone needs to point that out in the 21st century, but there you go.

And why in God's name would you be jealous of someone like Chris Rock because they "can" use that word and you can't. Is your life not complete because you can't call black people "nigger?" Don't worry about anyone else. Why would you want that poison to enter your mind and kill your soul? Do you get pissed because the warning tag says you can't use a hair dryer in the tub?

 

Cut Paul Rodriguez some slack. He wasn't there to rip Michael Richards, he was there (a) to help the club owner address the media and (b) because he was on the bill with Michael Richards that night, and put it in some perspective. If you watched the news conference, he spent most of the time getting ripped by activists who were there because he wasn't being harsh enough on Richards. His comments were pretty honest -- he said he heard the tirade start and thought that it better be leading up to a hell of a punch line.. but it wasn't leading anywhere. It was just a big dumb offensive diatribe.

One of the more interesting parts to me was the people demanding that the club ban the use of the word "nigger" and they essentially made the point that it's kind of hard when the primary people who've used the word there are Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and other prominent Black comics.

And Daemon, I think your point is correct. I think Richards was pissed off and wanted to get back at the hecklers so he went for the nuclear option. Watching that video, I think it took him about 30 seconds to realize what a grave and stupid mistake he made.

 

I'm feeling counseling for anger issues. Book it. He used the term "rage" about three times in his apology on the Late Show, setting himself up for dealing with his uncontrollable emotions.

 

Rodriguez is an ass. Why did he feel compelled to refer to Richards as a "a man of Jewish faith"? That was unnecessary, irrelevant and politically incorrect. (Especially since, from I've read subsequently, Richards isn't even a Jew).

 

That was awful. Ugh, terrible. If his career is dead, so be it. That's just not a comedic choice you make under any circumstances, and what Hurricane Katrina has to do with it...

I've been pouring through African-American literature - from the slave narratives to present - for a year or so, and the depth of the identity crisis white people put into blacks is deeper than I thought. Surely black Americans shoulder some of that responsibility, but slavery, and the racist oppression that followed, bring us to our present situation and white Americans have to stop thinking everything should be all right by now, and start working on solutions that don't merely say "ole" to the current, prevailing and self-destructive black culture.

 

There was a Sinbad sighting today on CNN. He is, apparently, against the use of the word by anyone.

 

Ever see the movie "Do the Right Thing?" If not, go rent it...now. Buy it at Wlat Mart if the local Blockbuster is closed. Great ended scenes where Danny Aiello, who has said the entire movie that he has no problem with black people, loses his temper and starts calling some punks who won't leave his pizza shop this very same word. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I won't spoil the ending for you.

Lee's message is pretty simple: people's true colors come out when they lose their tempers. Lord knows it's happened to me and I have a couple of ex-girlfriends that, years later, refuse to speak to me because of the things I said when I lost my temper.

If he wanted to take a dig at them all he had to do was reply was, "yeah, I'm not funny and you'e sitting here putting yourself through it. You could leave, you could go take a piss, you could go smoke and cigarette and come back, yet you sit here, posessed by my lack of talent. How smart does that make YOU?"

 

I hear you on the girlfriends becoming exgirlfriends because of tempers erupted; the product of growing up in a house where you had to yell and scream with venom.

 

That was tough to watch (Letterman). Lotta anger rages through his heart and soul.

 

And Richards goes onto Letterman's show via satellite and apologizes to his mostly white audience. Well, glad that's taken care of.

 

I thought he just bombed on Letterman.

 

The crowd laughing every so often early in the "sorry" made him look like he wanted to gauge out someone's eyes and skullfuck them.