Michael Richards. The name, at least a few weeks ago, was unfamiliar to all but the most hardcore “Seinfeld” fans, who knew him better as Cosmo Kramer, the rather eccentric pal of Jerry Seinfeld. Now the name is the newest to be associated with racist rants, following Mel Gibson and his anti-Semitic diatribe, and Senator George Allen and Macacagate (God how I hate that cliché, and yet I still use it).
So, the story goes like this: Kramer, er, Richards is doing his routine at the Laugh Factory comedy club in who-knows-where (I’m not a reporter, I don’t need to know the little details) when a pair of blacks in the audience interrupt his monologue and start heckling him. Richards just explodes, making a number of racist remarks (including the ubiquitous n-word, which I won’t repeat here because I don’t want Al Sharpton getting on my case) before finally being escorted out and banned from the club. Now, I won’t say that Richards was completely justified (he could have just called them assholes and avoided this whole debacle…maybe), but seriously, no comedian likes a heckler. But the two guys haven’t gotten more than a mention in any story I’ve read. Richards gets called on being racist, yet no one pays attention to the rude audience members? Typical.
Anyways, this incident has brought up–yet again–the issue of racism in our society. Yes, it still exists. I have no clue why people are still shocked by that. Newsflash: being politically correct doesn’t make bad things go away. It just pisses off the people who hate being politically correct (like me). Not only that, but why is it that any white person who dares utter the n-word is jumped on by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and ultra-liberal bloggers nationwide, while blacks get away with saying it on a daily basis? Not only that, but no one would have cared if the race positions had been reversed. If a black comedian had been up there and his hecklers had been white, and he called them both crackers, the media frenzy would have been limited to tabloids and a couple blogs. Instead, a white guy insults a couple of black dudes and all hell breaks loose. Heck, this pushed the whole TomKat (what is with celebrity relationships and combined names?) affair off the front page. Can anyone say “overblown?”
