Monday, November 20, 2006

An Open Apology to All People Offended by Michael Richards' Racist Tirade

My pal just pointed that Kramer's tirade on the stage of the Laugh Factory has probably set Jewish/Black relations back further than Jackie Mason's last comeback album. I was shocked. I had been enjoying Richards' shame all day and didn't even realize that he was Jewish.

But wait, is he Jewish?

Then I realized that to most people everyone on Seinfeld is a Jew. Except the Soup Nazi and the dancing boss guy.

Thus I can no longer enjoy Michael Richards' completely serious racist rant.

Knowing some facts in advance, I wasn't terribly surprised by his outburst. Richards is a famous comedic actor who is an OK comic. If you don't know him TV, he might be as funny as a homeless person pretending to walk with a very tall sawhorse dangerously near his crotch.

I think I was more impressed, knowing the weekend crowds at the Laugh Factory, that no one in the club tried to kill Richards.

But if you think of Richards as Jewy, let me both apologize and insist that he does not speak for me. I don't believe in insulting people based on race unless it's hilariously funny.

Thank you.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Joel Augustus Rogers points out that it was rabbis who first circulated the Hamitic myth. A number of sources point to jewish involment in the slave trade.
Taken alone Richards comments would do little but in the context of history they are most discouraging. As I write on my Blog, you would think after Hitler, Henry Ford et al that jewish people would PARTICULARY be sensitive to these situations.
I think the shared background of slavery would encourage black-jew relations but it doesn't.
You would think a people so hated, vilified, mistrusted and blamed wouldn't, couldn't say things like that but....
It's easy to hate, hard to love.

10:35 PM  
Blogger Hilary said...

Did you read this: http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16838

Apparently he's not Jewish.

11:14 AM  

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