M. Richards' time

Get ready to be uncomfortable. If you haven’t seen it by now (and I don’t know how that’s even possible), here is the racial slur-filled tirade from Michael Richards at the Laugh Factory last weekend. Damn it Cosmo Kramer. Why? Say it ain’t so. We all knew the guy was crazy. Check out his IMDB. Kramer, the psycho bow-tie killer in Problem Child, Stanley in UHF…the list of crazy roles go on. But racist? Damn it. There are no excuses for this. He killed his career and the stuff he said makes me sick.

But now let’s play Devil’s advocate. Even though there is no reason to and no argument for his behavior. Is Los Angeles a racist city? Does the necessity of stereotyping and racial profiling that comes with the terrority in the casting process in Hollywood contribute to the attitude of the people in the city? Couple that with one of the most diverse racial/ethnic mixes of people in the country, and a whole slew of cultural confusion because of it, and what do you get? Racism. However, most of it is harmless and simple misunderstanding. Michael Richards’ outburst was not. It was flat out racist and very, very sad. Sad for everybody involved.