Michael Richards

[Deleted]

Meanwhile...in response to the report that Richards launched a tirade against Jewish audience members earlier this year, his new publicist, PR powerhouse Howard Rubenstein, confirmed that he did make anti-semitic remarks, but claimed they were part of his act. He then says that Richards is Jewish. Which is what I thought all along! For lack of a better term, he always looked very "ethnic" to me, so I was really surprised when this whole thing came out. Not that he couldn't be self-hating, but still...very odd.

So, which is it? Is he or isn't he??

Rubinstein on Richard's anti-Semitic rant

[esoterica]

Wow, T Shirt Hell didn't waste any time getting in on this.

[catfrog]

From the article Mailily linked to:

Clearly he needs some race sensibility training, and some psychiatric help

Hmm, don't know if you're going to 'train' that racism out of him. Perhaps mask it, so he doesn't get caught again, but that was some pretty vicious stuff he spewed.
However, after watching him on Letterman, I'd say the psychiatric help is long overdue.

I *love* the way these celebs hire people with deep links to the communities they've offended to get them out of trouble (see Gibson, Mel). I suppose 'reaching out' is the right thing to do, but it seems deeply cynical to me.

[Deleted]

When he said, "I'm not a racist," then said, "It just came out," he told on himself. "It just came out" means it was always there....

Thankfully, I never cared for the show "Seinfeld" nor the actors/characters, and still don't. But then I'm not a sit-com person anyway.

I suppose 'reaching out' is the right thing to do, but it seems deeply cynical to me.

ITA.

[gloworm]

LOL.
"Reaching out" to Al and Jesse aka The Gatekeepers of Everything Black™ isn't doing anything for me (as a black person in NC).

Does he think he can send a message through Jesse and Al to the rest of us? hahaha

Apologize to the guys in the audience and then go away. That's enough for me.

[ahenobarbus]

ironee said:

gibby said:

I agree. He seemed like he thought it was going to be funny, and it just snowballed. He was acting like he'd said the F word for the first time.

If and I do mean if that is what happened, then he should have made that excuse.

It wouldn't be an excuse. Claiming that you thought the 'n word' would make for edgy comedy doesn't excuse you from anything.

I'm just curious about which account of his personality is true. Is he a racist who let the mask slip, or is he just an anti-social type who can't tell how offensive he's being because he doesn't empathize with other people? I suspect the latter because I've known people like that and he reminds me of them (I've also known white people who use that word on a regular basis, and he does not sound like them).

[Neurochick]

gloworm said:

LOL.
"Reaching out" to Al and Jesse aka The Gatekeepers of Everything Black™ isn't doing anything for me (as a black person in NC).

Does he think he can send a message through Jesse and Al to the rest of us? hahaha

Apologize to the guys in the audience and then go away. That's enough for me.

I think Al basically told MR to go fuck himself.

I wish Richards would just go away, he was never funny and Seinfeld sucked anyway.

[Deleted]

ahenobarbus said:

ironee said:

If and I do mean if that is what happened, then he should have made that excuse.

Claiming that you thought the 'n word' would make for edgy comedy doesn't excuse you from anything.

Oh, it wouldn't be an acceptable excuse in my eyes. But, in my earlier post I was looking at his response from a cynical, celebrity spin-control perspective.

And I still think that MR might have come off better in some peoples' eyes if he'd used the, "I wuz just playin" excuse rather than, "The rage got holt of me," one.

[Deleted]

esoterica said:

Wow, T Shirt Hell didn't waste any time getting in on this.

I still like my "Kramer doesn't care about black people" shirt better because I'm retarded like that.

[lpatrice]

Having said all that, I’m bored by all the black leadership using a neurotic Hollywood comedian as a whipping boy. Everything Kramer said can be heard much more cleverly on a standard rap CD or on “Def Comedy Jam.”

(Link to Full Article - scroll down a bit).

This pretty much sums up how I feel about all the "outrage". And my sympathy for the 2 hecklers is quickly waning, after I found out that they have lawyered up. Perhaps they are planning on suing for emotional hurt or distress.