Michael Richards' entertainment career is over after video surfaced of him shouting racial slurs at hecklers during a stand-up performance in a comedy club. Last night he appeared on David Letterman's show to apologize for his outrageous actions.
As part of his apology, Richards talked about a rage that took over as he confronted the rude audience members. What could have been handled professionally and even humorously turned shockingly ugly -- a far cry from the lovable Kramer we're accustomed to.
I couldn't help but think of Mel Gibson, as well, who had to say he was exceedingly sorry for anti-semitic remarks he made while drunk.
It was stupid, irresponsible and hateful of these men to speak those words. There is no excuse, only apology.
Yet I wonder how often these hateful slurs would surface if they weren't in our collective American vernacular? Gibson at least can say he was drunk -- who among drinkers has not said something outrageous while inebriated? Richards has no "defense" at all, really. He got angry and said awful things because he wouldn't control himself.
I'm thinking of a conversation Oprah had with rapper Ludacris when he was on her show to promote the movie "Crash." Oprah is not much of a rap fan, for those who don't know. She finds the "N-word" highly offensive, and rightly so. Artists such as Ludacris defend their use of racial slurs because as black people, they're "owning" the terms -- loosely related to the logic of "laugh at yourself before others laugh at you." Only instead of "laugh," it's "label."
At a "multicultural education" night in college, one man tried a different approach to help us non-minorities understand: Among my family, I may call my sister words like "idiot" or "moron." But if Suzy Chapstick from the down the street yells at my sister and calls her a "moron," I jump to my sister's defense and want to kick Suzy's butt.
OK, I get that. But ideally, shouldn't I just stop calling my sister a "moron"? If the N-word is damaging for a white comedian to say, it should be damaging for ANYONE to say. It's an ugly word with years of hatred and brutality tied to it.
As long as the N-word is being bandied about in our consciousness, it can push itself to the forefront of our thoughts at any given moment -- all the more in moments of blind rage or a drunken stupor.
THIS WORD DOES NOT BELONG ANYWHERE IN OUR VOCABULARY.
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5 comments:
The rule in my family:
We don't call names.
Again, I think distance and lack of education have allowed words like these to enter back into the mainstream. Like the Nazi speak and dress that seems to be popping up with kids, hate speech is making a comeback because so many people have forgotten it's impact. I agree Lois, these words need to be stopped. To do this I think schools and parents need to set aside some time to go over their history and impact so this generation and the next NEVER forget.
I'm sorry, but at what point in history did hate speech cease?
From my recollection it has not once stopped.
The problem may be that we are concentrating too much on offending others. Schools spend ample time educating our children about when historical atrocities have transpired due to a races social status.
If focusing more time towards a particular subject is the answer, how does one explain sex education and its impact on our young people?
I'm confident teen pregnancy rates did not decrease when the public education system decided to direct more energy towards teaching children about "safe sex."
I fall somewhere between travelin' (was I tackling "world love" here?) and serinkat. While these slurs are NEVER funny or appropriate and should thus not be used by ANYONE, on another level we almost give simple words too much power. Should we say them? No. Should we define them as the worst thing ever so that their mention hurts people's hearts? Again, I think not. Yes, this is somewhat of a paradox, but it's the best expression I have of my opinion on the subject. Perhaps there's no solution.
You said "Suzy Chapstick."
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