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Got an e-mail today, and though I briefly covered this on my show, I guess I’ll weigh in on it now. The e-mail is as follows..
Excellent blog you posted today!
I want to know what your opinion is on the whole Michael “Kramer” Richards thing.
I think the hecklers were in the wrong for being rude, and I’m a black woman. However, it doesn’t excuse him from calling them names like that. Having said that, Richard’s words don’t mean anything to me. He’s not in a position of power, and as long as there’s black people who still call themselves the n-word, well, we really can’t complain can we?
When I hear a white person say “nigger”, I’m reminded of George Carlin’s take on the matter. He said..
I get tired of people talking about bad words and bad language. Bullshit! It’s the context that makes them good or bad. The context. That makes them good or bad. For instance, you take the word “Nigger.” There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word “Nigger” in and of itself. It’s the racist asshole who’s using it that you ought to be concerned about. We don’t mind when Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy say it. Why? Because we know their not racist. They’re Niggers! Context. Context. We don’t mind their context because we know they’re black. Hey, I know I’m whitey, the blue-eyed devil, paddy-o, fay gray boy, honkey, mother-fucker myself. Don’t bother my ass. Their only words. You can’t be afraid of words that speak the truth, even if it’s an unpleasant truth, like the fact that there’s a bigot and a racist in every living room on every street corner in this country.
Richard Pryor had a good take on the word, and its usage as well. I’m paraphrasing here, but he basically said “Look, man.. it’s hard enough just being HUMAN. Ya know? Just being alive, trying to be a good person, getting along in life. Now you go callin’ me ‘Nigger’ and I’m like ‘aww fuck, man.’ Cause now I’ve gotta deal with THAT shit”.
I don’t need to get into the history of the word. I don’t need to sit here and argue semantics. I don’t probably need to weigh in on Paul Mooney making a decree to “stop using the N word”. Everyone reading this right now KNOWS what the word means in the context used by anyone who’s using it.
And truly, it is all about context here.
Michael Richards, heralded during his time in the service for having a skit comedy troupe that tackled the tough issues of race relations, is probably not genuinely racist. I believe that. I’m also painfully aware, however, of what it’s like to get pissed and say a bunch of shit you probably don’t really mean – but you want to push buttons.
So, here’s how I think RIchards’ thought process went..
- I’m being heckled. That man is very rude.
- I need to say something to that guy that will affect him.
- Oh, he’s a black guy. Maybe I can make a joke related to black people
- Waitaminute… what right does this guy have heckling me? We white folk gave civil rights to all nations and creeds and banned slavery and this guy repays us by coming into a club and taking liberties with being rude to me. How dare he. After all we’ve done for his people. He doesn’t know how good he has it, compared to history of not that long ago. Perhaps I should remind him.
That’s how I figure it went, anyway. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s the line of thinking I was following by watching the clip. That’s where his “50 years ago you’d be hung upside down from a tree with a fork up your ass” line was stemming from – and where his rant was going.
Now – I don’t give a fuck how Richards apologizes. I don’t care how many times. The simple fact of the matter is that his brain went to the dark recesses of thought to pull out that “this man is lucky to be alive, being black like he is. And he’s lucky this country gave him that chance.”
It was a racially-motivated remark. Had the man been white, he would’ve perhaps resorted to the classic “oh really? well, here’s some things about your mother that aren’t too pleasant….” style of reverse-heckling.
The simple fact is – it matters not that he used the word “nigger” in his speech. He could have left that word out entirely. It’s the supporting sentences and context that made that word so harsh. He was using it in the worst possible way – to belittle a man of another race, simply for being that race, and turned him into not an individual but an object – a generic word. It’s fine to objectify assholes and rude hecklers – but it’s NOT fine to use their race as a playing card in that war.
This call from Mooney to “not use the n word” won’t change anything. Racist fuckheads will always use it to some degree. There’s about 8 milllion songs that use the word in various iterations. There’s white kids who think it’s super swell to call anyone (black or otherwise) “my niggah”. That word ain’t goin’ nowhere. And, frankly, I don’t think it needs to.
Personally, I use the word when discussing it in usage (like I have throughout this entry) and/or when making an obviously racist joke for the purpose of impersonating a racially-ignorant fuckhead by pointing out their ignorance and line of thinking.
Here’s an example of a time I used it recently…
Nad : “ahh.. it’s our local neighborhood crack dealers”
Me : “how do you know they’re selling crack?”
Nad : “They’re always standing on that sidewalk. In a small group. All day long. And looking around for cops. And they do the slow low-five and then put hands in their pockets.”
Me : “Nad, I think the correct answer is – because they’re black guys, standing around for hours on a sidewalk. What else would those niggers be doing?”
Now, Nad knows I’m not a racist. All of YOU know I’m not a racist. Nad’s black girlfriend knows I’m not a racist. If she was there, she’d have laughed her ass off at that joke – I know because I repeated it to her later and she DID laugh her ass off. The joke wasn’t about black people selling crack – it was to mock ignorant assholes who would think the only logical explanation for black people standing on a corner is to be selling crack. In this case, of course, the people we were discussing were actually crack dealers – but that has nothing to do w/their race, or the joke I made. Furthermore, the WAY I presented the joke was as a stiff-shirted white man, doing the “painfully white” voice (a la Dave Chapelle’s “look at ‘em bob. they love it! Just like it said in the Encyclopedia”).
Interestingly enough – the only people who would be offended by that joke are white people. Seriously. Even Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) pointed out something very similar, recently. Black people, or (fill in object of humor here) are rarely offended by jokes made about them while in their company. They realize if you were truly racist, sexist, anti-sematic, etc. then you wouldn’t be comfortable enough to tell a joke in front of them – and/or there would be much more sinister intentions behind the joke.
The end point in all of this? Well, I’ve called out before that I REALLY wish white kids would get over their fascination with using the word (even if it is the less harsh and effectively meaningless “niggah”), but they’re going to keep doing whatever it is they think makes them cool. Black people – use it all the live-long day. However you wish. Why? Cause it’s a word used to belittle black people. Just like I can call myself a whitey, honkey, cracker, wop, dego, guido, et al.
To answer the question, and a remark made in the e-mail I received that inspired this (which I’ll quote again below)
Having said that, Richard’s words don’t mean anything to me. He’s not in a position of power, and as long as there’s black people who still call themselves the n-word, well, we really can’t complain can we?
Not true. He’s in a position of power as an entertainer. He’s known. He has a platform to speak his mind. If he were a bum on the corner yelling to no one and saying all that shit – you’d take him as a racist, ignorant fuck and keep walking. Richards knows better, and knows where he was when he said it. As for “not having the right to complain”? I don’t believe that. I think you have every right in the world to complain. It’s childish, ignorant, and wrong to pull the race card on someone – I don’t care what the offense and I don’t care what that person calls themselves.
