WTF, first Mel, now Kramer?!

Wow, we all hate hecklers, but this was a little over the top, no?

And the even more awkward apology on The Late Show.



Here's the thing that apologists never get around
to talking about and that's the fact that we all
know racists of varying stripes and background. I
cannot condone this tirade nor can I condemn Michael
Richards for the rest of his life. I see what he did
on stage as a bad move but not as some kind of
ultimate revelation of his true nature.

First off, I've known some truly hateful people
and they are very skilled at hiding their true nature.
It's usually the people who aren't that bad that end up
hanging themselves like this.

Second, as a performer or artist who tries to tap into
his stream of consciousness, this looks to me like a man
who said the wrong thing and then tried to defuse it by
blowing it out of proportion. It's a classic digging your
way out of a hole tactic and it never works.

Third, are most people really shocked by this behavior?
There are people laughing on both videos way after it
appears to be inappropriate. If it weren't for the use
of one word, the act would have gone on unabated. This
N-Word shit is ridiculous. The word is used constantly
in rap and film and it's put out there as some kind of
power trip as if to say, here is a word we can use, but
God help you if you even say it within the context of
talking about the word itself. I'm compelled to type the word
"N-Word" when talking about the use of the word "nigger."
That's ridiculous especially since I'm not trying to insult
anyone.

It gets even more ridiculous when I watch a show like
"Mind of Mencia" and Carlos Mencia does a video in
which he calls Kanye West a "crazy nigger." No uproar
and I saw that one on YouTube as well. So now I'm guessing
that it's OK to say the N-Word if you're Hispanic, but
not if you're Jewish?

So how's this gonna line up? Asians can't, but Pacific
Islanders can. Indians can't, but American Indians can,
but only if they live on a reservation. And what if you
are a mixed breed? Oh my God. What if you are half black
and half white? I bet it's OK for Denzel to say it, though
he never would. But I bet Mariah Carey and Nicole Ritchie
would still get their asses beat for saying it.

I think there is a deeper question to be put forward here
and that is if the word itself is bad why don't we take one of
these two approaches, but not both. Either we all stop using
the N-Word because it is bad or we take all power from it.

There is a solution and I think it's in recognizing the
context of these things. A friend of mine calls me a
big, Indian bastard. Now, I know he would never call me that
in anger, he does so out of love. It's his way of recognizing
what I am and appreciating it. It's OK because there is love there.
Just as there is when black guys call each other "my nigga."
Granted, Sidney Poitier probably never calls Harry Belafonte that.
A lot of younger dudes, black and white, will do this and not
get offended. Older folks will say it isn't right for a
white high school boy to say this to his black best friend
even though there is no hint of hatred in it, but I think
they are on to something. They have managed to take a
word full of hate and defuse it by making it synonymous
with "my friend" or "my man" or "my brother." And that's
not a bad thing.