In response to a heckler on a bad night, Michael Richards (aka Kramer) uttered the n-word. Then the fecal matter hit the fan. He is being denounced and accused from all sides.
Radio host Glenn Beck makes a great point. This term is a staple of comedy routines. He was in a comedy club, doing a comedy routine. Bad comedy? YES. Apparently he said this to someone who was from the SE because the responding word of derision was ‘cracker’. Been called that, and most people don’t know what it means. No one cares about the cracker comment (implies just as much hate), just the n-word.
I don’t know him. He could very well be a racist. But one comment in a comedy club does not a racist make. We cannot see his heart. But we do seem to have a big inconsistency or more going on.
But why do people give such power to words. The reason the n-word is so offensive is because we allow it to have such power. I get called a WOP occasionally. It is a derogatory remark. I can either let it roll off my back as the word of a small person, or get all bent out of shape and make a huge deal out of it having the very reaction the person who uttered it wanted me to have.
It is time we stop wrangling about words, and get down to the real issues- racism, the victimization mentality, & the power we give to others to harm us. It is time to address the inconsistencies the this incident reveals:
Why is such an offensive term ‘funny’?
Why is such an offensive term used so often by the people to whom it refers?
Instead of marking someone as a racist, let’s get busy on the real issues.
Here is Anthony Bradley’s take on Michael Richards’ words and apology.
Michael Richards a.k.a Kramer is only the tip of the iceberg. There are millions of white Americans and whites across the world that feel that way. We as Black people need to stop this silly MLK dream BS and end this living nightmare. Whites only respect violence and we will continue to suffer unless we do what it takes to end this BS. We can kill for crack but not freedom!! WTF The reason the word ‘cracker’ and ‘nigger’ are not the same is because whites were not enslaved by the most brutal and evil slavery known to man. The word nigger was used to magnify psychological operations early in American history for free labor and some sick idea of superiority. The only superiority I see is a much higher degree of evil. Calling us niggers is not what upset me the most, the comment about lynching and sodomy is what really got me steaming. The words are not nearly as bad as the hundreds of Black men and boys that hung from trees. Second, when you speak of rap music… A little history for you stupid David Duke repeating idiots: Rap music started out as uplifting the Black condition in the world. As soon as white children started buying rap, the so-called ‘gangsta rap’ became the dominate rap format. There were many more positive rap groups back when rap was really Black music. Non-blacks buy 80%+ of rap music for the last 13 years or so. Your children drive the market by dollars, rap is commercial (white washed) so to reference it is silly. By reading the comments posted it again proves whites are not that intelligent, whites relied on evil and technology to gain the upper hand on other races. But do not think your azz can’t be dealt with, the game is never over…. As a matter of fact it just began. Keep spewing your BS all across the world. We are listening and tired of your BS. Black people worldwide let us get our stuff together and don’t whine when they only be what they are. Let us pool our resources and starve the racist where ever they are. We don’t have the continuity to truly be racist, we do not have any real power to render them financially and politically impotent. Never allow one Black dollar get into the hands of a white racist; no matter how much you need or want an item they produce. We will never forget slavery and we will honor our ancestors for their resilience, strength, bravery, and endurance; properly one day. Let us never forget, less we find ourselves in the same position. Let us crush their ideology out of existence; this is the only thing we should be working towards the revenge of our ancestors and the awakening of our children. We should not be ashamed of being enslaved because we are the victims of slavery and the after effects of slavery; in this society whites are very proud of their role in slavery and subsequent racist apartheid system. I would think a rational and good person would be ashamed of this action, but NO, they are proud and you consider them not evil? How could you do half of the things they have done for over 400 yrs and be proud of it? And you state God bless America? What God bless the enslavers and tortures that are greedily devouring resources across the globe only to feed some psychopathic ideology? Good or evil God? Use your conscious to decide.
Just read some of the sick rhetoric these so-called humans produce:
http://homepage.mac.com/garyligi/iblog/C1344787019/E20061121175908/
Well, that was an interesting perspective. You obviously think he’s a racist, not just a bad comedian.
Are you as upset by the slavery that still continues in North Africa?
And you don’t seem to understand that “Vengeance is mine” says the Lord (Romans 12). You are just as evil as the people you hate.
You quote the same bible that got us in this situation? (enslaved and deprived) And expect a intellectual response? You people are drowning in your own delusions. Im upset at this evil world your people have created, you need to check yourselves and look at what you have drove the earth and its people to because of your madness you call ‘White is Right’. What BS… look at the conditoin of everything around you and tell me its right!! it is white but not right!
P.S. Yes, I hate all slavery its in my blood!!!!
You certainly have me confused with someone else.
I am not a white supremacist. I don’t use the Bible to justify slavery.
Not all white people are racists. Some of us have friends who are black. I do. Some of us have neighbors who are black. I do.
I worry about you, for your heart is given over to hate. And you will destroy yourself just as much as you may destroy anyone else.
Yes, the world is filled with evil people. Evil is no respecter of color, nationality, language etc. This is why Jesus came to endure death in the place of sinners like me and you, to set us free from this hatred, selfishness, fear & greed. The place Jesus went to prepare is not Whiteyville, but a new city filled with people from every tribe, tongue, nation and language. And they will all be equally loved in His eyes.
Please, stop buying your own BS.
Cavman, I take “Sick of BS” point. While racism is racism, its a bit tough to equate cracker and nigger. One is said by dominant culture people and one by those dominated for centuries. Being called a cracker is not the same as being held down for so long by a society in every shape and form. John McWhorter has written some good stuff on the topic but its one thing for him, an African American, to criticize his community and white folk to criticize the community when so much of white privilege hasn’t be adequately criticized by us. For my take, Kramer is a racist. Whatever comes out of drunk (or angry) man was already there first.
I think everybody should be as free to say “nigger” as black people are to say “nigger”. Why can’t white people call black people what black people call black people?
In my lifetime they have demanded to be called “people of color”, “colored people”, “black”, “African-American”, “Afro-American”, back to “black”, then back to “African-American” and the politically correct thing to do was to call them what they wanted to be called when they wanted to be called the “phrase-of-the-day”. In the mean time, most of them have consistantly called each other nothing but “nigger”.
White fear of saying “nigger” freed double killer O.J. Simpson! When Mark Furman was asked if he ever used the word he should have replied “Of course I’ve used it, but nearly as often as you have. Had he done so O.J. would have been convicted, because as soon as Furman denied it all evidence in the case was ignored and it became the Mark-Furman-racist-trial.
These people forget that long before a white man bought them they were captured into slavery by a black African and sold to another black African and maybe even another before reaching the coast and being sold to a white man. Blacks enslaved blacks. Honky Cracker Whitie did not venture into black Africa and capture them. Blacks sold them to Whitie. Blacks still to this day enslave blacks in Africa.
And do you believe that those black hecklers, in their late 20s, were that hurt and shocked and as they said on TV had never been called niggers bafore???? Crap!!
I’ll guarantee that they are a lot more prejudiced against white people than Michael Richards is against blacks.
White kids are taught from very on in life how bad it is to dislike black people, at least most of them are. Black kids, on the other hand, for the most part have it drilled into their heads that it is not only their right but their obligation to hate white people. You blacks reading this can say what you want, but you know it’s true.
I’ll vote for reparations for slavery if it goes along with reparations for the damage done to this country by blacks.
Sorry, racism has nothing to do with power. Power merely enables someone to get away with it. This post-modern emphasis on power is garbage.
I’m going with Jesus. Love the Lord your God. Love your neighbor as yourself, and love your enemies. Power, or the lack thereof, does not justify hatred.
No word has any power over us, unless we give it power over us. Cracker only bothers me if I let it. And it shouldn’t matter WHO says it. What God is concerned about is not the word, but the hatred in the heart. He’s not weighing which derogatory word is worse. “O, cracker. Not too bad.” He weighs the heart, and a heart filled hatred is in big trouble. I don’t care what color the skin is.
Agreed with your line, “no word has power over us…” and yet I should only apply these sentiments to myself and the words used to try to hurt me. But when I hear words used by one to hurt another, especially someone who has been wounded for generations with such words, I should stand up and call it an evil and not point out the sin on both sides. This is why I have a problem with the Borat comedy. Though he is making fun of those who make racist comments about Jews, he is participating in generations of those who used similar words to try to cause real damage to Jewish people. And there are enough fruitcakes out there to enjoy his remarks for real. The poster above who comments about Blacks using the n word ought to realize just because some use a name doesn’t mean it should be used. Just because a heroin addict shoots up doesn’t give me the right to stick the addict myself.
I do admit that I am not unbiased in these issues as I am raising two AA boys in a world where they are seen by their skin first.
I guess my point is we are so focused on the surface sin, not the root sin.
As someone who is the process of adopting an Asian child, and will probably adopt an AA child after that… I want them to learn that what Jesus says about them matters far more than some hate-filled sinner does. Not an easy thing- I have a sensitive skin.
Agreed. I have more than once told my boys that line to Samuel, Man looks on the exterior, God looks at the heart. One of the things I learned from transracial adoptees in my cultural sensitivity classes (we had to do this with our agency) was that they would have liked their parents to have spoken out more strongly against the real racism they experienced. Color blindness felt like denial. I imagine their parents worked very hard to provide loving homes and to treat them like every one else. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not do that and so I work to innoculate my children as best I can. While they have experienced very little obvious racism, it is amazing what they see that I don’t see. My son believed, at 2, that God was white because his little Christmas bible had a picture of a white Jesus with pink cheeks. They see when color lines are so clearly divided (a toy magazine that only uses white models, that the little TV news they see shows almost only the Black criminals)… But I digress and am off your original topic. As you can see, I have sensitive skin here as well. God’s blessings on your current and future adoptions. They have been a source of joy and sanctification for us. We have learned much that we would never had the opportunity if we had biological children instead.
I was very disappointed to read one of my daughter’s new books on the Bible to her. Baby Jesus was looking VERY European rather than Middle Eastern. I can see how kids get very confused as they see the biases of publishers/authors. It is almost like having toilet paper on your shoe- you’re often the last to know.
I agree that slavery is evil, and that blacks have been sorely wronged. However, slavery is not merely a white-on-black phenomenon. There was a time in history when blacks enslaved whites:
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm
And right now Muslims are enslaving non-muslim blacks in North Africa. Yeah, we have no market on enslaving others.
If we had these would we be called racist?
United Negro College Fund
Black History Month
Ma’Uled Al-Nabi
NAACP
BET – Black Entertainment Television
Black Chamber of Commerce
Miss Black America not open to whites
60+ Black Proclaimed Colleges
Stop using the black card for social aid and leverage.