Michael Richards Hates the South
By now everyone has seen Michael Richards, aka Kramer, completely lose it at an L.A. comedy club. My first thought upon viewing the meltdown was “thank God Richards isn’t from the South”. What would have followed would have been weeks of southern bashing along with Richards being pitied as simply a product of his environment. With the crutch of the south unavailable, pundits searched to make sense of Richard’s meltdown.
Anil Dash falls back on trusted stereotypes, African-Americans in one corner, whites in the other.
“But the fundamental issue here is that there’s a significant tradition in many African American communities to see entertainment venues as a forum for interaction, as a place for dialogue and conversation inspired by, or even directly in response to the performance. Whether it’s call-and-response in church or at a hip hop show, it’s not merely acceptable to be talking or reacing, it’s expected. Would showtime at the Apollo be as fraught without that expectation?”
“Conversely, a lot of white culture places an expectation on respect for the performance. There’s a standard of reverence for the person on stage, or the film being screened. And there’s an underlying sense of value: Hey, we all paid to be here, so be quiet!”
Not only is this a simplistic view, it fails to acknowledge that heckling is a tradition in comedy clubs and isn’t shocking to anyone, black or white. In fairness, Mr. Dash is probably far too busy promoting sixapart to spend any time at the improv to understand comedy tradition.
Dan Charnas asks “Are You Really That Surprised?”
“The construct for “Seinfeld,” like so many other comic teleplays and films, is a monochromatic world where White People are central, and people of color — if they appear at all — are simply used as accessories, as added “color” for a scene.”
I’m guessing Mr. Charnas never saw an episode of Good Times (white characters = evil), or The Fresh Prince of Belair (white people can’t dance. Get it? Funny! ), or Living Single (in fact, Living Single was almost a mirror image of Friends, except in color), or any from a long history of black sitcoms that do the exact thing he’s preaching against.
Of course, none of this answers the fundamental question: Is Michael Richards racist. Honestly, who knows. There’s no doubt it was a racist diatribe, but only Richards knows if it came from deeply held racist beliefs or out of control anger. If I had to guess, it’s the latter. Richards came off as a man who needs anger counseling, who may be on drugs, and who very well could be slightly crazy. He appeared to be bombing and simply lost it. When confronting with hecklers he went for the easy insult.
People do this all the time. When angered we fight back, and often we go places we never thought we’d go. The person who cut you off in traffic? Women drivers. The guy who cut you off in line? Fat slob. It’s not right, but as Chris Rock says, I can understand.
And so the story goes. The two targets of Richards’ abuse have refused to accept his apology. Apparently going on Letterman and practically breaking down in tears is considered a career move and insincere. Insincere being code for “we want as much money as our blood-sucking lawyer can get us”. Richards’ past is being scrutinized, included possible anti-Semitic remarks from past comedy shows.
Richards is quick to point out that many of his closest friends are Jewish. Besides, it was all part of the act. He was simply making fun of rednecks. Maybe that was his mistake. When your back is against the wall, when you have to lash out to save your ass, the South is your best bet. No one will mind, no lawyers will be at your door. There’s not enough money in it. But it’s too late now. He’s on his own, and it ain’t pretty.
