Jere, the comments HAVE to be from idiot kids who think they're funny.

PLEASE let that be the case.

I only read about this briefly this morning heading into work. My mouth was literally hanging open while watching it. Reading what he did and actually seeing it are two totally different things.

There is no excuse nor any apology that could cover that. I'm sick over it.
 

I think he got heckled, got real pissed off and tried to be "controversial" with the "hang you upside down" line, which was borderline, but could have been funny in context, I guess. Then, feeling more pissed off and imboldened by the laughter he got, he tweaked out completely. I very much doubt he's a racist, which doesn't excuse it, but it's worth noting at least.

Real stupid and totally bizarre.

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But, again, the truth shines right through. These people are able to say these things because it's what they believe. Screw Michael Richards and all the other racists.
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Honestly, I just think people on the internet get a kick out of seeing other people get indignant and pissed off. It's sort of the same reason early punk rockers (and Hell's Angels) wore swastikas. Cos it was funny seeing the older generation get all huffy over it, not because they were Nazis.

I think it's overly simplistic to say that people do or say things like this because they're racist. I don't know that it changes a whole lot but again, I feel like it's worth noting.

I also feel like sticking by your friend when they make a huge mistake is an honorable thing, and "disowning" him or whatever would have been a real shitty thing to do.
 

Why is it a "mistake"? Because he said it in public?

I'm coming from a place where, when I get mad at someone (like he did at the hecklers), I don't think about them in terms of their race and how the entire race is stupid or whatever. So when I hear someone react that way, all I think of is: total racist, end of story. And I don't see why you'd want to be friends with a person like that.
 

I think it's way more honorable to disassociate yourself from people who feel that way about other human beings.
 

It was a mistake because, where I see it, the situation's a lot more complicated than you're allowing it to be.

I think he was so mad he wanted to piss off the people interrupting and heckling him. He got furious to the point of going straight to that button he knew he could push and really "get back" at the guy.

I'm not saying if a friend of mine did that I wouldn't be absolutely furious at him, and think differently of him, but if I felt like he was contrite and it didn't represent a genuine dislike for another race, no, I wouldn't publically disown my friend.

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So when I hear someone react that way, all I think of is: total racist, end of story.
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That's the thing though- it's not always that simple. It's easier to get angry about it all when you look at it that way, but it's not objective and it's just not true.

I hope I don't sound like I'm trying to justify what the guy said or did. There's no good excuse for it. But I don't really agree with your POV here totally.
 

I didn't say to publicly disown him. Seinfeld could've just gone on there, done his thing, and if asked about the incident, say "I don't agree with what he did" and leave it at that. In fact, he kind of did that, by just giving Richards the time and not commenting much about it.

I think there's a line you can cross where you just can't say "Oh I didn't mean that at all, it just came out of my mouth." And where it becomes impossible to defend someone for their actions.

He said somethin gin the apology about "trash talking." Like, maybe he was trying to get at them, make them mad, whatever. But A. why make it a racial thing? You can do it in a totally different way and B. Why say things that go so far beyond the situation to the point of mentioning one of the most horrible chapters in our nation's history and really in the world's history? That goes beyond trash talk to the point of "my race, as proven in the past, is superior to your race."

Why would he even think that? Seriously, okay, I have an example. Yesterday I was walking home. A bunch of dudes in work gear and those breathing mask things were congregated on the sidewalk as I walked toward them. I got a little pissed because they all just stood, blocking the entire sidewalk execpt for one little path, and there was a really slow lady in front of me. So I had to wait, when if just one of those guys had moved over, I could've gotten by. Now, as it happens, these were black dudes. My only thought was the terrible job these particular people were committing for blocking a sidewalk. I hate it when anyone does this. I never thought for a second that the whole black race is responsible for me being held up for two whole seconds. Or that 50 years ago it would be so great because I'd be able to lynch these people--as Richards said-- for causing any disturbance in my life.

The fact that he thinks that way is enough for me. He's a racist. The fact that he said it must be a call for help or something, I have no idea. Because I'm not going to say "...is even worse" because it's just as bad to think those thoughts as it is to say them in public.
 

Well, Richards just blew his career out his arse:

He should go over well with those ADD addled Bleacher Creatures, at "The Toilet", really-well.
 

I think he lost control of himself and was really trying to piss off the guys that pissed him off, so he went as hard as he could. I don't think it means, per the definition of racism, that he thinks less of black people than white. I think it makes him a stupid asshole with an anger problem.

This reminds me of something Elvis Costello did, actually. He was hanging out, drunk with Bonnie and Delaney, and they were hurling all manner of insults at the English and the music/ musicians from England. So Costello, just to piss them off, called Ray Charles and James Brown "niggers." The story got out, and Costello had to apologize.

Apparently, Ray Charles invited him to meet, saying he wasn't upset, but Costello was too embarassed to do it.

I don't think Elvis Costello is a racist.

I guess my point is, I don't think this speaks to some larger race issue (which still obviously exists). I think it was just a guy who tweaked out and said the wrong thing.
 

I suppose that had it happened in Boston or by a Bostonian, it would have been 10 times worse. Heh.

Anyway, I don't even know what to say about it. It's so horrible. And selfishly, I am pissed off that Seinfeld will be kind of spoiled for me now. Damn you, Richards, for tampering with my Seinfeld watching and igniting racial tensions.
 

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I suppose that had it happened in Boston or by a Bostonian, it would have been 10 times worse. Heh.
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DEFINITELY!! :)

I don't think it'll spoil [i]Seinfeld[/i] for me. I still like Roman Polanski's movies, you know? But yea, it sucks the topic will have to come up in that conversation.

Robert Altman died last night. Huge loss- he was one of my favorites.
 

Forget Seinfeld, I can never look at Stanley Spedowski in the same way again.

I get that he was trying to say the most offensive thing possible to humiliate the heckler. What gets me is that he keeps saying it even after he's calmed down from his initial rant. I don't know if he's a racist or not, but the fact that he was throwing it around in a calm voice is kind of weird, given that he wasn't doing a routine on deconstructing words like George Carlin.
 

I know, right? The guy in the club who says he's never done any films, just "Seinfield," has obviously never seen UHF.

But, yeah, for a good long time, possibly always, I'll see the show Seinfeld, which I still pretty much catch at least one episode a day of, differently.
 

I actually do think of Polanski and his statutory raping ways whenever I watch Rosemary's Baby. It's no way to live, I know...
 

And if your tribe members and another were hanging out as friends and you were jokingly messing with each other's traditions and everyone was kay with it, then there's no problem. But if you're both kinda near each other and one person from another tribe steps on your toes and start immediately talking about how their members used to be owned, whipped, hanged, lynched, etc by your members, and that they're lucky that those practices have stopped because if they hadn't, you'd be doing those things to them and it would be nice and legal and you'd enjoy it, then you are an ass hole.

We can blame the govermant for separating blacks and whites in society. And also past white generations for not wanting to live amongst people of different colors than their own. I'm sure a lot of black people would love to live in nice houses, "nice" neighborhoods, etc, but their family has been held down for generations and they can't leave the poorer areas and even if they try really hard, will get paid less and treated worse and still end up poor. It's not their fault, it's our stupid society's. Whites don't wanna be near blacks and blacks are kept away from the "nice" areas, which are all taken up by whites.
 

>>We can blame the govermant for separating blacks and whites in society. And also past white generations for not wanting to live amongst people of different colors than their own. I'm sure a lot of black people would love to live in nice houses, "nice" neighborhoods, etc, but their family has been held down for generations and they can't leave the poorer areas and even if they try really hard, will get paid less and treated worse and still end up poor. It's not their fault, it's our stupid society's. Whites don't wanna be near blacks and blacks are kept away from the "nice" areas, which are all taken up by whites.<<

Actually, what you are describing is systematic or institutional racism. It's the largest part of the iceberg and it sits below the surface. Racism is a machine that started a long time ago and now, unfortunately, it runs on autopilot. I think of it like a really strong whirlpool that's impossible to walk against. It really will take a full commitment by the government to begin eradicating it. Instead, the country has offered Band-Aid after Band-Aid.

I won't go on.
 

Right. The point is I think of how he's a rapist whenever I see any of his movies. I used the term "stautory" because I knew someone would, ahem, correct me if I didn't.