Sometimes when dealing with a PR nightmare, the best move is to simply keep your mouth shut. Somebody should have given Michael Richards that advice. I don't know if the man is racist or if he is truly sorry for his tasteless rant from the weekend. What I do know is that his disjointed apology on Letterman Monday night did him no favors. A coherent written statement probably would have been a better move than that awkward seven minutes beamed into The Ed Sullivan Theater via satellite.
I will give him credit for not using the celebs' excuse du jour of blaming the episode on being drunk and immediately checking into rehab. I just think if he wanted to aplogize he could have picked a better forum. Letterman was clearly uncomfortable and the audience really didn't know what to do, sometimes chuckling awkwardly. Weird.
4 comments:
Why should he apologize? Those guys supposedly interrupted his set, why shouldn't he get pissed? Now I understand that it isn't nice to call people names, but have you ever watched any black comedians? Would there have been a problem if it had been a black club, with a black comedian, calling a white guy names? Most, but not all, big name black comedians seem to make a career out of insulting people openly. Is it ok for them? Is it ok because they not only insult whites but blacks too? If someones in his audience acting like a N...let him call it, chances are that most people inthe audience had already come to that conclusion. I just hate how a white person does something that is considered racist and they get called for it, while the reverse happens daily and it's no big deal.
There is no doubt that there is a double standard, but that doesn't make it okay to toss around the N-word. Someone in the media brought up the point that when Chris Rock uses the N-word it's funny, when Michael Richards (or any white comedian) uses it it's racist. I don't think anybody should use it. White or black, I think using it is unnecessary and stoops to a low level. In this particular instance, I think the way more offensive line was talking about them hanging upside down with a fork up their ass. There has to be a more civil, less offensive way to handle a heckler. Just about every comedian before him has figured out how to do it.
I think the Black community does itself a great disservice by using words like n*gg*r, H* and P*m* among themselves and in the modern media. It is base, disrespectful and promotes a culture of trying to out-lower one another morally. And the double standard is not fine and someone should say so. Jet Magazine tried to do a series of articles about Black women attempting to promote the idea of verbal respect amongs blacks. The mainstream media gave it a big yawn.
In effect, they have a free pass and I am just going to state it. If you are a foul mouthed angry black liberal person who promotes a culture of immorality you are adored by the mainstream media. If you are a hardworking brilliant black woman who acheives the level of success that Condi Rice has then you are labeled an Uncle Tom.
The liberal whitey just can't stand to see them acheive anything of importance lest they stray from the secular plantation. Dr. Cosby found that out in a hurry.
I personally find Chris Rock hilarious.
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