KRAMER FROM SEINFELD Is he a racist or just stupid?

Question

Did you feel Michael Richards is a racist ,or a bigot, or just made a gigantic stupid mistake? Have you ever used the "N" word? in the wrong place and wrong time? And don't all races have words for the other races and in the privacy of there own home use them? And who can use the "N" word? and has this been blown way out of proportion or is this a serious problem in America?or are we just a hypersensitive society. Just curious. Thanks

Answer 1

If you know anything about Richards' comedic background, you'll know his style is to go so over the top on the hecklers so as to one-up them. Think of it like a verbal "Jackass". Of course this backfired because this kind of experimental humour was fringe at best during the 70's - the culture of immediacy & technology has made everyone so thin-skinned that we now have less time to think and more time to fret over 'who was mad they didn't show 'Gilmore girls last night?'."
I saw this actual post on this board.
Notice how everybody's talking about racism now. I seriously doubt Richards is a racist - he's no Lenny Bruce, either. But he's a damn smart fellow with almost 40 years of experience in show business. He tried to be 'shoc/funny/berate the hecklers simultaneously. That's a big plate of food to eat. But he bombed. Yes it was ' uncalled for' . But it's also exactly the reason he did it. This is the same kind of fringe-offensive act you would've seen on stage 35 years ago followed by Pryor or Belzer - and it would be lauded and called 'groundbreaking'. It was the cocaine school of comedy. Trying to make us see and feel our own demons by shocking the piss out of us. Richards did us a favour, albeit in a collosally awkward. Shows who the real racists are - now coming out of the woodwork.

Answer 2

I think he made a mistake. Plus IMO, If he's a racist let him be one. It's his life and his decision. Although if he was, I doubt many people would attend his comedy shows (not that they will now anyway). Most races at least have derogatory words. I'm black and we do call each other *******..its affectionate. And most races do. Or they make fun of their race -- like Wierd Al's White and Nerdy. BLACK PEOPLE CAN USE ******. If anyone else does it's offensive. AND some of us don't even like the use of that word, so unless you are friends with that person, just don't use it. It is a serious problem in America though, but at the same time we are a hypersensitive society in response to our history. we're basically trying to make up for what we've done wrong.

Answer 3

The poor guy is feeling the pressures of a declining career. He's gone from being on top of the world doing Seinfeld to an out of work actor who's been reduced to a club act. He's given most of us hours of laughter on Seinfeld.
I watched the tape over and over. He's a character actor. He gets disconnected from reality. I believe there was this instant when he first heard the audience laugh, that he thought he was onto something new. That they thought it was funny so he ran with it. He was trying to improv on an issue he should have stayed away from. Black comedians get to do it. Then things got out of hand. He was lost on stage and just dug a deeper and deeper hole.
As painful as it is to watch, I for one wont hold it against him. I love the Kramer character and I wont let something like this ruin it for me. I totally understand what happened and know that everyone is human. We all make mistakes. They're just not caught on camera.

Answer 4

In my opinion, I feel that he was so distraught and angry with the heckling, that it got to his core and blurted out what he thought to be the most harmful thing that he could muster about those heckling him. I think that he was totally unnerved and spewed out the most hateful thing that he could say at the moment. Was it right, HELL NO. As a public performer, he should know better that he might get some backtalk from the audience. The men who did the heckling, did not in my opinion, say anything remotely deserving of what Richards yelled out. Shame on him.
Like I said, it is my opinion, and yes, I did see the video.

Answer 5

It's a double standard! The fact that rappers say the "N" word (No I don't use it!!) all the time!! And you hear all these little hip hop clowns refer to themselves as it again every other word...I have no problem with the fact that he snapped and called them something they probably refered to themselves as all day long anyway....It was the comment that precipitated it

"If it was 50 years ago you'd be hanging upside down with a fork in your a*s" That blew my mind...

Something like that just doesn't roll off your tongue unless you've thought about it before..That was unbelievably offensive and crossed every there was to cross in my mind!! The dudes career has been dead for years. So I can't even say he buried himself with that comment...But he sure let people know where his mind lies..He's racist no if's ands or buts about it.

Answer 6

individually, I 0.5-trust you i think of that they have been being finished ******* by heckling him... pay attention ME OUT in this... I dont think of that he could have mentioned the "N" be conscious many times returned... the completed "fork up you a.." element became into meant to be a humerous fact and if he might've left it at that, it would've basically been the classic scene of a comedian getting the hecklers returned with a rapid fact (you may admit, it became into extremely sensible) and no large deal could have been made... It became into the fact that he mentioned "N" then proceded 2 say the be conscious many times and many times and returned. That, my pals is what have been given him in difficulty. P.S. it is not a "double customary" for black ppl 2 use the N be conscious, yet substitute it around 2 n***"a" It became into an extremely sensible concept reported by N.W.A (N***az Wit physique of innovations) It became into meant like "Yeah, have been ******s. What you gonna do approximately it." It became into around the time of Rodney King, while blacks have been being discriminated by the government (much greater so than they're now.) It became right into a political fact on the time, and basically caught with the hip-hop way of existence and is what that's immediately. P.S. i like UNDERGROUND hip-hop, no longer pretend@$$ "HIT-POP" $#!*

Answer 7

I think his true colors came out in his tirade. He wasn't smart enough to turn things around and either turn the situation into something funny or make his heckler look like an idiot. That would have gotten the audience back on his side. What about his heckler? Nobody said anything about his racial slurs!!

Answer 8

I think he's got a serious racist issue...he didn't only used the 'n' word but he said remarks that refered lynchings in the south before the civil rights movement. That to me is just so terribly dispicable that I think he must be some kind of horrible person inside.

Answer 9

Stupid mainly. Possibly racist.

Answer 10

i think he is just a jerk there was no reasson for him to be acting like that and saying thoes words he could have said nicer insted of using the n word!