Michael Richards (Kramer for Seinfeld people) gets nasty! Whats the big deal?

[Assassin X]

Ok, well since no one brought it up even though its making news everywhere I thought I would.

If you don't know the guy from Seinfeld known as Kramer (actor name is Michael Richards) went on a rant at the Laugh Factory a few days ago when some black men got ticked at his "act" and spoke up.

Please watch both before making any judgement:

Well for those who haven't seen hias video of what he said here it is, its very.... "raw" with language:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfgqTLpjtL4

Then yesterday he apologized on the Letterman show (which I seen), heres that video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ889qbGjWE

Ok, while I think he obviously got a little "overboard" with the people I think he was right to yell at them, just not that much in such a nasty way. People are split on this but heres what peopel fail to realize....

ITS A COMEDY CLUB! Comedians make fun of people! Screw the "censored" or "Safe" stuff you see on "safe" channels and what not. If you've seen the good and normal stuff you know ANYTHING is open game for comedy, even if it JUST HAPPENED. 9/11, coloumbine, abortion, princess diana....etc. Thats what comedians do. If you get pissed at a comedian calling you the N word then you shouldn't be in a comedy club! Comedians will pick out EVERYONE in a club and shred into them.

BTW in case your wondering what I am talking about supposedly before the rant he made a "nigger" (e>a?) joke (sorry had to post the word for refrence) and thats when the black guys spoke up and he (kramer) went nuts.

Yeah he was obviously a little overboard and pissed and not really "comedic" in this instance. But it wouldn't have started if some moron wouldn't have been offended about a comedian in a comedy club. He has some issues but its ashame people go to clubs and get psised when comdians get "offensive". DON'T GO THEN!

[Beatnik Bob]

There's e difference between putting on a comedy act and being genuinely hostile...

[Perfectionist]

Holy Crap !! Haven't heard about this in the UK !! Thanks !!

Found another one about it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEcz9...elated&search=

Do you think his career is over ..... or will this raise his profile and make him even more famous ??

[Assassin X]

Personally I hated Seinfeld, that show sucked. But the few times I did see it I liked "Kramer". After it though his career was over. I didn't even know he was doing comedy until I heard about this story. But now his "career" is definetly over since to many people our pigheaded.

I can agree that his rant was over the line. He simply snapped about someone not liking a "N-word" joke. On that end like I said people shouldn't be there if they can't handle N-word jokes. He mad a bad choice though to keep going and explode. His apology while seeming true, still seems like its to late though. Both parties are guilty. Sadly he'll take the brunt of it because of his mouth.

In this day and age we all have deep dark feelings that we hide and we are quick to judge people but remember, for every finger you point theres 3 pointing back.

[uki]

all those gangsta-9-pack'in nigg'as got thinner skin than a jellyfish membrane. i think it is hilarious. in the gangsta world black men call themselves nigg'a everyday. but holy shit, god forbid a white boy call them a nigg'a. but interrupting a stand up show because you are offended is just a nigg-er thing to do... doesn't matter if you are black, white, or purple. he is right, all black men seem to do is talk, talk, talk... of course this i s a generalized statement based on observation... if anyone claims that the african-american culture is anything but loud and flamboyant... please feel free to speak up.

[Perfectionist]

Black culture in America is actually lived more by middle class white wannabe's then ghetto blacks living off welfare !!

Maybe this will get black people to start hating on Jews .... seems the rest of the world does !!

[Assassin X]

uki...

Hey now your not suppose to notice that!

I'm glad someone else noticed the spellings....
Nigger
Niggar
Nigga'

It drives me nuts. Some people say I make a big deal about it. I say its speeled diffrently depedign on how you use it, or at least thats what the black people say. I don't know what the "proper" term is. In the 50's I think it was the racist term with the "e" in it. Now I don't what means what! I know " Nigga' " is what blacks use. As for the other two supposedly one is what a white persoin says and the otehr is what a black person says. Stupid, just stupid. I just got a quote...

Jules Winnfield: English, mother-fu**er! Do you speak it?!

I love that movie!

[Assassin X]

Black culture in America is actually lived more by middle class white wannabe's then ghetto blacks living off welfare !!

Me and my friends love pulling up to the white college "gangsta" that has his seat back with his windows down and his offsensive "rap" going at full blast as he gives us the dumb ass "gangsta" look. We try to make geeky faces as we are geeks. Whats worse is the girls that age are become "gangsta" now. One of my friends sister act gangsta and she sounds so damn stupid.

Come to think of it I have seen people in their 40's and 50's beggining to act "gangsta". Mine you I am still talking about white people.

[uki]

Originally Posted by Assassin X

Hey now your not suppose to notice that! I'm glad someone else noticed the spellings....

one of my hobbies is mushroom hunting and identification(mycology), you have to notice everything for a proper I.D., even then it can be wrong... once i was looking for mushrooms and my head was down; i walked headfirst right into a whiteface hornets nest... they got me 13 times. now i look where i am walking and not just what i am looking for.

It drives me nuts. Some people say I make a big deal about it. I say its speeled diffrently depedign on how you use it, or at least thats what the black people say. I don't know what the "proper" term is. In the 50's I think it was the racist term with the "e" in it. Now I don't what means what! I know " Nigga' " is what blacks use. As for the other two supposedly one is what a white persoin says and the otehr is what a black person says. Stupid, just stupid. I just got a quote...

i am in agreement with you here... how you say it implies the intention... for me, anyone who cheats, steals, or otherwise is decietful or shady can be coined a nigger. personally i like to throw it in when i am tearing a new asshole into some dumb redneck who thinks mexicans are shit.

Originally Posted by Perfectionist

Black culture in America is actually lived more by middle class white wannabe's then ghetto blacks living off welfare !!

yeah it is pretty sad. i love laughing at some group of 5 foot white gangsters in clothes 8 sizes to big for them, no belt, and untied timberland boots who give me the hard-ass stare... it is a sad situation in america. this gangsta shit is like a cancer.

[Smoke]

funny ****** story, I dress all "gangsta" and no one has the balls to come up to me and talk shit... when im wearing my "untied" Timberlands yes i own a pair, and baggy pants... I have encounterd pussies who will drive by and yell something or talk shit via msn but no body comes up to me in person and sas i dont like the way you dress do you know why because I will smash them in the face.


and as for that micheal richards shit it was the funniest thing i have seen in a long time.

[uki]

Originally Posted by Smoke

funny ****** story, I dress all "gangsta" and no one has the balls to come up to me and talk shit... when im wearing my "untied" Timberlands yes i own a pair, and baggy pants... I have encounterd pussies who will drive by and yell something or talk shit via msn but no body comes up to me in person and sas i dont like the way you dress do you know why because I will smash them in the face.


and as for that micheal richards shit it was the funniest thing i have seen in a long time.

i don't talk shit to anyone unless they instigate an aggressive encounter... each to their own. i am merely making general observations. people probably don't like the way i dress(actually it is the same everyday), but who really cares. thick skin is better than no skin... and if someone came up to me and started complaining i would probably laugh in their face... or take my shirt off and raise my arms; my manly smell will chase them off.

[Assassin X]

I don't talk to the "gansta" white guys simply because its easier to laugh at them and get them pissed because they don't actually do anything about it I noticed besides "bark" instead of bite.

There was one guy a few weeks back when I was at the store and I was going to get into a line at Best Buy and he skipped under the ropes and got ahead of me and I told him theres a line behind me and he said "**** off dawg, I am dis shit!".... whatever that means. I cocked my arm back and the "gangsta" nearly screamed like a girl and and got in the back of the line and then of course mumbled a bunch of crap. Mind you I am not exactly...."fit". Pansy ass wanna bes. Yes this is a screwed up country.

[Cow]

As an African-American myself, I am very offended by some of the comments in this thread alone. That word, regardless of how it is spelled still has the same implications as it did 50+ years ago and many generations before that. It is the perpetuation of hate and ignorance bestowed upon my people from the beginning as slaves. While I cannot account for many of the "gangsta" blacks in our country today, I can stand up for people of my race, period. Regardless, there are way too many generalizations about the black race in the United States being stated in this thread.

I have never in my life witnessed the constant use of "they" and "them" to portray generalized ignorance on behalf of a group of people who are not present to defend themselves. I also will not make excuses for the root of "gangsta" I implore you to discover that for yourselves. What I can say, despite my reservations on the subject, is the media has a certain way of bolstering the negative side of a group of people, regardless of race. This is in addition to exploiting the artistic form that preceeded the present day representation of mainstream "gangsta".

It is unfathomable the inate racism that is beneath this veil of "everything's gravy." This goes both ways and I am not singling any group out. I as a human being, regardless of the color of my skin, am ashamed of the human race as a whole. Not all African-Americans are the portrayal present on cable television and what is seen through the occassional pass through the ghetto. It saddens me that a proportion of my people don't have the resources to excel in life. It saddens me even more that people, rather than look at history and institutional racism would rather make immediate assumptions. Many of these "gangsta" people are only this way because they are trying to do better for their families, mothers and wives. They have no other skills and often have lesser paying jobs. No one would know this, because "hey that rapper is rich".

I have to go for now, but I will return to complete my post. I'm very unhappy with the comments made in this thread and the characters portrayed. Amazing.

[Smoke]

assasin... you dont know, One day you will try that and the whiteboy who u think is a lttle bitch will punch you in the face, if some one cocked theyre arm at me like they were gonna hit me they would get it regardless of size ethnicity or age.

I dress like this because i want to and many others do to.. I dont want to be black.

So please stop assuming shit.

And UKI again.. your a joker ha ha ... run people off with your smell. LOL

[Cartesiantheater]

Originally Posted by Cow

As an African-American myself, I am very offended by some of the comments in this thread alone. That word, regardless of how it is spelled still has the same implications as it did 50+ years ago and many generations before that. It is the perpetuation of hate and ignorance bestowed upon my people from the beginning as slaves. While I cannot account for many of the "gangsta" blacks in our country today, I can stand up for people of my race, period. Regardless, there are way too many generalizations about the black race in the United States being stated in this thread.

I have never in my life witnessed the constant use of "they" and "them" to portray generalized ignorance on behalf of a group of people who are not present to defend themselves. I also will not make excuses for the root of "gangsta" I implore you to discover that for yourselves. What I can say, despite my reservations on the subject, is the media has a certain way of bolstering the negative side of a group of people, regardless of race. This is in addition to exploiting the artistic form that preceeded the present day representation of mainstream "gangsta".

It is unfathomable the inate racism that is beneath this veil of "everything's gravy." This goes both ways and I am not singling any group out. I as a human being, regardless of the color of my skin, am ashamed of the human race as a whole. Not all African-Americans are the portrayal present on cable television and what is seen through the occassional pass through the ghetto. It saddens me that a proportion of my people don't have the resources to excel in life. It saddens me even more that people, rather than look at history and institutional racism would rather make immediate assumptions. Many of these "gangsta" people are only this way because they are trying to do better for their families, mothers and wives. They have no other skills and often have lesser paying jobs. No one would know this, because "hey that rapper is rich".

I have to go for now, but I will return to complete my post. I'm very unhappy with the comments made in this thread and the characters portrayed. Amazing.

Wow Cow! (rhyme!) I gotta say I am very impressed with the way you handled this thread. As I was reading it, I was thinking about how offending it could be. As far as the European/UK guys, I don't think they know better. From other threads, it seems to me that they don't have the same sort of sexism/racism awareness. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think there's a cultural thing here.
Now, for the actual topic. I doubt that Kramer is racist. I think he was simply trying to take a dig at those members of the audience in a way that would be the most offensive to them. And it stands to reason that race is probably one of the most important subjects for black people in the US (well obviously; just look at US history). However, this is just a hypothesis. What if the guys were Jewish? Would Kramer start making fun of the Holocaust?
In any case, the guy deserves to be railroaded; but if he also is sincere in his apology he deserves forgiveness as much as anyone.

But now for the REAL issue: here is why racism exists...

People fail to realize that "race" is an artificial distinction that DOES NOT EXIST in the real world... think about it in terms of evolution... is there a magical line drawn in the sand that determines when a particular race evolved from the original human race? Or is there a magical line IN NATURE that determines whether Colon Powell is black, even though he is OBVIOUSLY mixed? Of course not! Or think about this: There is more genetic differences WITHIN races than there are BETWEEN them... and yet, this horrible ignorance continues... Who'd of thought?

This is all total bullshit. There is no reason for racial distinctions EXCEPT for personal identification (i.e. "so how will I know when Jones get's off the plane" "well, Jones is 6-5, fat, oriental, and he has green hair"). That's the ONLY justification for racial classification, IMHO. Obviously this conflicts with some of your post, Cow, as you said "my people." Only thing I will say to you is that "your people" are also "my people" whether you like that are not. (I am quite the offensive radical anti-rascist) On questionnaires where there's a question about race, I make my own bubble and lable it "human"... (learned that from God... I mean Richard Dawkins... in The Ancestors Tale...)

People need to rethink what they've posted on this thread. This reminds me of the "Chavs" debate in the UK... more bullshit...

[Assassin X]

Smoke said:
I dress like this because i want to and many others do to.. I dont want to be black.

Well if white guys dressed like that aren't trying to be "black" then they are trying to be like Eminem. And if thats not it either then your lying to yourself. Because theres no other reason to look like that and talk like that unless your imatating something you seen. Thats why black people find it offensive, white guys being "black". And they always say "I ain't being black".

Sicne were talking about "race"... I think some people just get bent out of shape when it comes to things. Like if I am at an airport and I am with a friend and I see someone that has a cool shirt I am going to say " Dude check out that tall black guy over there with that awsome shirt!". Some would say thats beign "Racial" for stupid reason because I didn't say (for example) "Hey check out that Jamacian-American man....etc". We jusy say things to keep it short. I say white, black, chinese.....etc.

The only time things get "racial" is when people use terms such as the N word and describe something that they think is race specific such as my friends opinion that mexicans breed like rabbits. I hate being within 10 feet of him when he says that.

[Perfectionist]

I think all this gangsta shit has evolved out of the state of present society .....

It's now "cool" to do things against the law and be rebellious against authority .... studying and working hard for a living is for "losers", everybody wants to get rich quick and that usually involves crime ....

Perhaps this is perpetuated more by black culture as they are proportionately less well off and sometimes have no other alternative .....

Having said that, I have seen much worse said by other comedians about white people, orientals, women, gays etc ..... just check out Chris Rock or Andrew Dice Clay !!

I often crack gay jokes myself and use it as a term of insult !! But I don't have any prejudice against homosexual people what so ever !!

You'd never guess but I'm very fond of lesbians ..... go figure !!

[Perfectionist]

Originally Posted by Smoke

assasin... you dont know, One day you will try that and the whiteboy who u think is a lttle bitch will punch you in the face, if some one cocked theyre arm at me like they were gonna hit me they would get it regardless of size ethnicity or age.

Dude will ya STFU !!

You're a P.ussy who gets beaten up by girls and runs to mummy crying your eyes out !!

But ya act all big and tough behind a computer screen !! Typical Nerd with a Rambo complex !!

I dress like this because i want to and many others do to.. I dont want to be black.

You dress like that cos you have no sense of identity and have fallen for popular culture to give you one .... probably because you think it makes you stand out from the crown and makes the hot babes wanna funk you .... LOL !!

But in reality its cos you are easily influenced and just want to conform !!

So please stop assuming shit.

I can assume whatever shit I want .... you little Wigga !!

[shrike]

When 2 lions meet on a jungle path
They will growl at each other but let each other pass
when a tiger and a lion meet on a jungle path
they will fight to the death
both big cat?
why this behavior ?
There is enough difference between them to make them mortal enemies
Its the same between races
Its as simple as that
As far as richards
He was just shooting off his big mouth and went a little far
no worse than things i have heard from black comedians ragging
on white people
however he will pay the price of having a dead career
(not sure he had one after seinfeld anyway ?)
as far as the "gangster" role playing
you always have to remember
"he who lives by the sword , dies by the sword"
take to packing guns and commiting crimes or being a "gansta"
and there will be a slab at the morgue with your name on it

[Wastelandwarrior]

look im going to try my absolute hardest not to get carried away here... only beacause i have already gotten 3 or more private messages from the admins telling me to tone down the racisim...

ok...
yes kramer went over the line...
BOO HOO...
want a tissue???
now lets think for a minuite... there must be i dont know how many black comedy clubs in the southern states... AS IF the blacks dont make fun of white people calling us crackers and whiteboys and what ever the F they wana call us...
infact im sure that if there were white people in the audiance there are alot of racist crap said, in which case we (white people) should stand up and say "HEY that was UN-CALLED FOR" but we dont....
why?
look , i see alot more racism towards whites then towards blacks now a days...
and ya our ansesters did screww them over...
but why are we paying for it....???
any time there is even the slightest racist slur that pops out of a white persons mouth , the blacks jump ALL over it...
now i hate seinfeld and i dont like kramer.... but i got more respect for him now then i use too..
atleast he stood up to the colours.... most whites wouldnt...
oh ya.... and guess what kramer isnt white in my mind.... hes jewish... but hey mabie thats just me...
oh ya... and smoke
if there was ever a war... blacks verses whites, in my mind you would be black just because of the way ur dressed, so i guess your teeth and my boot would be very good freinds... take that fubu crap off and go find your self you traitor...

[lazserus]

I'm shocked at the stereotypes and ignorance portrayed in this thread. There is little to no shred of intelligent thought here. The initial post was one thing, but the rants you bigots and fools are going on is less than pathetic.

This thread is locked and gone. No more discussion. It could have been handled appropriately, but it apparently turned into something resembling a Nazi war party, or a backyard meeting with the Klan.

For those of you elder members who participated in this discussion in the manner done, I'm ashamed and disappointed in you all.