Michael "Kramer" Richards not laughing today

I wasn't even going to give this situation my time, but after seeing the apology for his 3-minute racial tirade at the Laugh Factory, I have to say something. I'm mad at the fact that he dropped the N-bomb more times than some 2-bit black comic on Def Comedy Jam, but I'm not mad at him per se. Obviously, that wasn't some drunken misstep or some sad attempt at a joke. Those are his true feelings, even as many times as he says he's not a bigot. Even the 'drunken missteps' are usually someone's true feelings, seeing as most people become brutally honest when they're drunk.

When you have to make a statement like "I'm not a bigot", that usually means you are. People who are not racist don't have to quantify their statements like that because their lifestyles speak for themselves. When I hear, "My best friend is black" or "I have black people at my house all the time", that's usually a sign that they've kept track of these things because they're uncomfortable with the fact.

Anyway, I'm fairly certain that this will not be a nail in the coffin of Michael Richards' career, especially because blacks do not control Hollywood. If his statements were anti-semitic in nature, then I'd be more apt to say that he should just go ahead and call his career a wrap. Unfortunate as this all is, racism is still alive and well--that's something we have to live with. I can't help but wonder though, maybe we (I'm speaking of black people here) need to look at ourselves and ask if we need to stop giving people reasons to think so lowly of us. People do take notice of the coonery and buffonery and minstrel-show antics perpetrated by some of our music, etc. Just a thought. Yeah, I'll be posting about that at another time I'm sure.