'Kramer' apologizes for racist tirade

[Ahimsa]

POSTED: 0249 GMT (1049 HKT), November 20, 2006

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) – Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he’s a bigot.

“For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this ****, I’m deeply, deeply sorry,” the former “Seinfeld” co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman’s “Late Show.”

 

[stbruno]

Personally, I don’t know why this is drawing such large media attention. The man was obviously wrong and has apologized for his very hateful inappropriate remarks. Instead the media has made him a pariah and probably has blacklisted him so much, the man may never be ever be able to secure work again.

They keep retrying Mel Gibson over and over again as well, since this episode unfolded. The two are unrelated. One was under the influence and the other was under stress. Neither acted professional in any sense of the word. Both have apologized. Case closed.

That’s why I like being Catholic. Once you confess you sin and repent, Jesus tosses our sins to the furthest end of the sea and posts a sign…No Fishing! Too bad the media can’t read signs!

 

[Philip76]

That’s why I like being Catholic. Once you confess you sin and repent, Jesus tosses our sins to the furthest end of the sea and posts a sign…No Fishing! Too bad the media can’t read signs!

Yes that is probably one of the biggest aspects of Catholicism that is unknown to most people, and it would be marvellous if the rest of society would start working that way.

 

[jc-servant]

An apology won’t erase this episode. I saw the tape. He didn’t only use the N-word repeatedly. He went on and on being racially insulting (which had nothing to do with the one yelled comment about his act not being funny). Comedians get heckled all of the time in a more vicious manner than one yelled comment, especially when they are not being funny (which other witnesses said he wasn’t). The heckler had not cursed at him, insulted his family or brought up anything racial before the racial tirade came out of Richards.

The worse thing was that Richards yelled that too bad it wasn’t 50 years ago when the black guy could be hung with an object shoved in an unmentionable place. It is more than merely being under “stress” when you tell someone that you wish it was back in the days when they could be killed by lynching for saying something a White guy didn’t like. At least Mel wasn’t advocating killing anyone even in his drunken stupor! Richards presumably was not under the influence of anything except his own mind.

Richards has been a professional entertainer for many years and has undoubtedly been heckled in much worse fashion by a myriad of people if he has done much stand up. He could have ridiculed a heckler in many non-racial ways (and actually been funny if he was talented at stand up). This is not the first time he has had a meltdown on stage, but it is the first time he attacked someone based on their race. The public is going to vote with their feet (like the audience who left) and their pocketbooks when they don’t support him as an “entertainer.” He used to have large number of Black fans from his Seinfeld years.

 

[Philip76]

Well he has apologised and if that isn’t enough for you then you’re not doing things the way God would have you do them.

We can forgive people who do all sorts of horrible things. We even forgive abortionists when they turn and repent. If people can’t forgive a man whose only crime was verbal, then they really are looking at the world in a strange way.