Why did the Michael Richard incident get a much bigger media reaction than other incidents of racism?

Question

Ex: When Rosie O'Donnell insulted the Chinese Language with the Ching Chongs or Shaq's comment on Yao Ming's ethnicity?

Answer 1

You're mistaking the "racial rating" of racial groups.
In other words, you're assuming that blacks & Chinese are on th same standing, because they're both minorities.

But they're not. Asians have excelled, therefore they have by their success, downgraded their ability to claim discrimination.
If you do much worse, for whatever reason, then you have more rights to whine and complain about things being unfair.

That makes for a bigger story.
Plus, Richards is Jewish, and there's a lot of anti-semitism in this country, especially among blacks.

Answer 2

Mel Gibson is an A-B list actor while Micheal Richards is on the D list or something like that Everyone only knows Micheal Richards as Kramer. Most ppl (myself included) didn't know his name until this incident.

Answer 3

In all reality it was a slow news day , around US thanksgiving right? And they needed something to get people's attention.

I thought at the time someone had an axe to grind with Richards and when one media outlet did it , all the media picked up on it.

Rosie's comments were not necessarily hurtful, I guess as long as you aren't chinese, but she blurts things out occasionally as we all do , which can be at times a little less than politically correct.

There's always going to be someone who if they want to be will find something to be offended about .

Answer 4

Because he's a middle-age White guy. Don't think so? When was the last time any minority was lambasted for their remarks? Personally I don't feel the need to use such remarks.