Originally Posted by Shady (Post 515945)

When it comes to the word "nigger", it comes down to this. Whether you are using it in a racist way or not. When black people call each other "nigger" they are using it in a friendly way. Sometimes they use it as how others may say "man", or "dude", or "dawg", or "bro", or however many people say. For example I will say "Hey man, hows it goin. Accept they substitute it with "nigger". In my opinion it is only racist if you use it in a racist way like Kramer did. The majority of the time white people say "nigger" its in a racist way which is why whenever a white guy says that controversy breaks loose. I have black friends and I say "nigger" sometimes and it doesn't bother them at all because I do not use it in a racist way. It all depends on how you use it and what context you use it in.

Originally Posted by Nchantress (Post 516008)

Forgive me for going off the topic, but I had a thought. Would everyone be as up in arms if "Kramer" had insulted a group of fat girls?

Originally Posted by Shady (Post 515945)

When it comes to the word "nigger", it comes down to this. Whether you are using it in a racist way or not. When black people call each other "nigger" they are using it in a friendly way. Sometimes they use it as how others may say "man", or "dude", or "dawg", or "bro", or however many people say. For example I will say "Hey man, hows it goin. Accept they substitute it with "nigger". In my opinion it is only racist if you use it in a racist way like Kramer did. The majority of the time white people say "nigger" its in a racist way which is why whenever a white guy says that controversy breaks loose. I have black friends and I say "nigger" sometimes and it doesn't bother them at all because I do not use it in a racist way. It all depends on how you use it and what context you use it in.

Originally Posted by Despare (Post 516032)

Probably not, but fat girls aren't a minority. ;)
Really though, in my opinion the guy just over reacted and those people shouldn't have been talking during his show anyway. I don't think anybody should be "up in arms", he screwed up and said some things he shouldn't have. So have I. At least he got SOME publicity. I'll never forget seeing the (HORRIBLY UNFUNNY) Dustin Diamond at a comedy club and he said, "I'd fuck you in the ass if it got me back in the papers!".

Originally Posted by Kemal (Post 516031)

I think the whole thing has been blown out of proportion.

Originally Posted by Shady (Post 515945)

When it comes to the word "nigger", it comes down to this. Whether you are using it in a racist way or not. When black people call each other "nigger" they are using it in a friendly way. Sometimes they use it as how others may say "man", or "dude", or "dawg", or "bro", or however many people say. For example I will say "Hey man, hows it goin. Accept they substitute it with "nigger". In my opinion it is only racist if you use it in a racist way like Kramer did. The majority of the time white people say "nigger" its in a racist way which is why whenever a white guy says that controversy breaks loose. I have black friends and I say "nigger" sometimes and it doesn't bother them at all because I do not use it in a racist way. It all depends on how you use it and what context you use it in.

Originally Posted by PhilnEdee (Post 516232)

Being white, being from the south, my take on the word is this...it's really such a bad word to use in any context. That word has more history associated with it than if you said "George Washington"...and none of it good...if a black person says it, or a person of any color says it...its not a good word to use towards anyone. To me, that word is the definition of slavery: oppression, racism at its worst, torture, killing, uneducated...all based on a persons skin color. I played on a USTA league tennis team one year and I was the only white player on the team...the rest of the team members are all good friends, but one time some of them said I was their "white nigger"...honestly, I didn't like it...so I can only imagine how someone who has ever experienced real racism (it still exists...didn't just go away) would feel being called that in an angry and offensive way.
As for my take on this episode...blown all out of proportion, giving him way more publicity than he deserves...because as a standup comic...he really blows. The Chris Rock analogy from Bigger and Blacker is a very good one being from what he deems a normal black person's point of view...but even there I think he missed the boat on just how dirty and hurtful that word can truly be.

Originally Posted by alkytrio666 (Post 516231)

I hope he gets sued to hell.

There's a difference between using "nigger" in a sentence and repeating over and over "You're a nigger! You're a motherfucking nigger! Fuck you nigger!"

When confronted about the problem afterwards, he stated that he doesn't know why he hates black people. He just does. He can't explain it.

He just acts like a juevenile all the time, it's like he's a 10 year old trapped in a grown man's body. He can't think like an adult human being. He obviously has some serious problems.

So again, I hope this guy gets what he has coming to him.

Originally Posted by Vodstok (Post 516237)

I heard someone make a really good point about suing him over this last night:

It boils down to this: There are no legal ramifications for exercising free speech. Yes, it was hateful, but the punishment for this kind of thing is being put through the wringer and a loss of status. He already has both. NO ONE is entitiled to a fucking thing aside from an apology.

Originally Posted by urgeok (Post 516241)

thats true .. you cant sue someone for being an ignorant asshole (unless you sued the school board for having a teacher saying this stuff to young kids.)

but you're right - he will be punished accordingly by how this affects his 'career'
no one should make any money from it.

Originally Posted by urgeok (Post 516245)

but .. one thing to consider .. there is freedom of speech .. and there is also hate crime legeslation.

had he printed out what he said into pamphlets and put them in everyone's mailbox - it could be a problem.

(i know this isnt the same deal - but it is the start of a slippery slope no matter which side of the equation you stand on)

Originally Posted by Vodstok (Post 516250)

Now, if they passed legislation banning groups like the KKK and Arian Nation from speaking publicly or being able to assemble, I would stand on the sidelines, pointing and laughing.

Originally Posted by urgeok (Post 516258)

i'd be in a black and white sedan with a big speaker on the top ... driving the fuckers off of a bridge :cool:

Originally Posted by PR3SSUR3 (Post 516625)

and




Michael Richards is a self-pitying, squirming racist. This is how:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB6qKPU6sps

Fifty years ago he would have had the 'niggers' upside down with forks up their asses. He wanted that nigger thrown out, that nigger, that nigger. Look, he is a nigger. Look at Kramer pointing and showing us the nigger. He won't be arrested for calling the black man a nigger, but the nigger has the audacity to threaten The Man. The White Man, who gave that nigger what was coming to him and then some.

In the middle of his racial abuse, Richards dubiously says "This shocks you." "What's the matter? Is it too much for you to handle?" - giving some gravity to his alarming performance. He is clearly aware his mind has broken, and very publicly. Yet he still cannot help himself trying to justify his racism before he is finished with the microphone.

His 'apology' on Letterman:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5eZqtb1hZw

Richards' slippery Seinfeld buddy expresses that the two are "very upset about it" and he is invited to "explain what happened" in "one of those awful, awful things." Kramer is apparently "mystified about what happened".

Here is some clarity: Michael Richards responded to audience disquiet with racial taunts, which is indeed an awful, awful thing for him to resort to. Perhaps now the mystery has been solved.

He goes on to say he made "trash talk" about the 'Afro-Americans', and when asked if they were heckling or just talking replied "That too". Other Seinfeld guy interjects that the audience should "stop laughing" around this point. Richards is then very sorry to the blacks, whites and hispanics who took the brunt of that anger (nope it was pretty much just the niggers Mikey) and "how it came through" (see above link for this). He is concerned about more hate, more rage coming through - not just towards him, but towards a black/white conflict, because there is a great deal of disturbance in America since Hurricane Katrina. Then for him, a comic, to come out and to say this crap he is deeply sorry for... he can only now get to the forcefield of this hostility, and discover why this rage is in any of us, why the trash takes place, whether or not it's between Kramer and some niggers or between America and another nation. Richards pushes the envelope, he works in a very uncontrolled manner onstage, with a lot of free association and spontaneous going into character. In view of the situation and the act going where it was going, he is not sure if he would have racially abused other creeds or colours, even though his rage was going all over the place, over everybody in the room. Michael thinks blacks could feel... what is.... he is not a racist, that is what's so insane about all this. He doesn't... and yet... it's sad... it comes through, it fires out of him. Even during the apology, it comes through in the passion as he confronts himself. Michael agrees that him trying to be so racially outrageous may have somehow diffused the heckling/talking situation, by 'Ju-Jitsu'-ing it - he had a microphone, he tried. But it doesn't always work out, and you can talk about a bad night. Michael tried to apologise to the niggers involved, but he couldn't talk to all of... everyone because they left. He thinks it's good the niggers have 'gone to the press' because it shows solidarity in confronting those kinds of remarks like, well, 'nigger' etc. etc., within the nigger community. It's important, he says, that the 'Afro-Americans' ensure this kind of crap doesn't... does not come about. Michael Richards is "sorry that it happened".

You know, if those niggers had just gone and been born fat instead, or maybe thrown a water balloon, they probably would have all had a good laugh about it instead of all this bitterness and unease.

Originally Posted by monalisa (Post 516800)

If it was a black comedian calling a white heckler a skinny assed cracker, I doubt that anyone would have batted an eyelash over it, they probably would have laughed. Big deal, it was a COMEDY show, ya know, not to be taken seriously. People need to fucking lighten up. Just my opinion.

Originally Posted by urgeok (Post 516802)

this was addressed several times earlier on in the thread.

there is a history to take into account. Whites in america do not have the same history as blacks.

Originally Posted by PR3SSUR3 (Post 516892)

Hmmm... so it's okay to call them niggers now, because they should be over it?

Highfive!