Warning: Potentially offensive material contained within!
Earlier this week, Michael Richards invoked the legacy of Mel Gibson in his treatment of some hecklers during a standup routine.
His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him that he wasn’t funny. Video of the incident was posted on TMZ.com.
Richards retorted: “Shut up! Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f—— fork up your a–.”
He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.
“You can talk, you can talk, you’re brave now mother——. Throw his a– out. He’s a n—–!” Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.
Predictably, many blacks are up in arms over a verbal attack on hecklers that became racial without provocation. A cursory review of prominent black and hip hop chat boards showed the usual suspects linking the ill-advised rant to every social ill emanating from slavery. Meanwhile, on TMZ.com (which first broke the story) a cadre of white power types made a martyr of Richards and cathartically echoed his racial taunts. Every hot button item from the apparent double standard of black comedians using the “N word†to black crime was invoked in their justification.
By the time this post goes live, Richards will have made his pointless apology on David Letterman, and I say “pointless†because there really isn’t any meaningful way to apologize for such a focused and protracted verbal attack.
That said, I think that both Richard’s detractors and supporters are blowing the issue way out of proportion. As many unbiased minds have pointed out, the N-word is just that … a word. With few exceptions, any word is only as offensive as its context.
The N-word was one of those exceptions until a bold young comedian by the name of Richard Pryor started using the epithet in his standup routines. While relatively tame by today’s standards, releases like “SuperN!gger†and “That N!gger’s Crazy†shocked and wowed audiences of all races while making strong political commentary on America’s race relations.
Eddie Murphy, who was among many comedians to cite Pryor as an influence, ruled the 80’s with his foul-mouthed, sexually charged and N-bomb heavy tirades. Again, his audiences spanned all races and most of them weren’t mortally offended (Murphy did have an issue with gays and some of the celebrities he insulted but that’s another matter).
The infamous epithet lurched in the musical mainstream during the 1990’s. While the N-word could be previously found on the occasional underground blues or X-rated records (Millie Jackson comes to mind), multi-platinum selling rap group N.W.A brought frequent use of the word to the mainstream. Made infamous for the anti-police anthem “F*ck tha Policeâ€, the West-Coast quartet nearly overdosed on the term for their sophomore LP “N!ggaz4Life†[audio sample]. While many rap fans (myself included) attributed the shock value to a lack of creativity following the departure of Ice Cube, it nonetheless started the now-tired trend of so called gangsta-rappers using the N-word in place of punctuation, complemented by the F-word and glorification of every felony imaginable. The notion of the term “n!gga†(as opposed to “n!ggerâ€) as a term of endearment among blacks became more widespread during this time.
Comedian Chris Rock used the term to greater effect in his politically charged standup routines. His oft-quoted “N!ggas vs Blacks†struck a strange chord with both upwardly mobile blacks fed-up with the ghettocracy of black politics and non-blacks whose conception of black people doesn’t span beyond the criminal underclass.
Whose more racist? Black people or white people?
Black people….You know why? Cause we hate black people too
Everything white people dont like about black people
Black people really dont like about black people
There some sh!t goin on with black people right now
There’s like a civil war goin on with black people
And there two sides….
There’s black people, and there’s n!ggas
And n!ggas have got to go
Everytime black people wanna have a good time
Ignorant ass n!gga f*ck it up
-Chris Rock – “N!ggas vs Blacks”
White conservatives and bona-fide racists claimed a double-standard in society’s tolerance for black use of the N-word while whites could still be ostracized for doing the same. However, white comedian George Carlin has used the word on many occasions with little backlash aside from that of the Ultra-PC brigade:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word “N!gger” 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 they’re not racist. Their N!ggers! 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, h*nkey, mother-f*cker 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.
-George Carlin
Andrew Dice Clay generally stops short of using slurs, but is no stranger to marking groups for ridicule – blacks included.
So why the selective uproar over Michael Richards’ tirade? Regardless of what many angry conservatives are screaming, it’s not a simple case of political correctness – CONTEXT means everything when it comes to using risqué language. Many groups refer to themselves using derogatory language as a show of camaraderie. Think of how many times you’ve heard friendly women refer to each other as “bitches†in a joking manner. Indians will refer to each other as “pakis†in private while Italian-themed TV shows like the Sopranos are unafraid of terms like “guineaâ€. In other words, the use of off-color humor between friends or associates cannot be regulated, nor can there be any expectation of acceptance when off-color terms are used by outsiders. To claim a double standard when blacks use the same self-epithets is itself a double-standard … and indicative of darker intentions.
George Carlin is similar to Chris Rock in that he uses epithets to make political points. Those who were offended by his slurs generally missed the point of his routines, which was to point out the folly in assigning too much meaning to language alone (a direct attack on the central tenets of political correctness). Andrew Dice Clay is similar to Eddie Murphy in that he is a crass, equal opportunity destroyer of every race/creed/gender/etc imaginable. If you go to a Dice Clay show and are offended by his material … it is your fault for going.
Unlike the aforementioned acts, Michael Richards did not have plans to integrate slurs of any kind into his act, nor was he trying to make some kind of political/social point by using them. Instead, he was responding to some hecklers and did so in a very rude and classless fashion. Even Andrew Dice Clay could not hope to spin racial lynching and pitchfork sodomy into some kind of coherent joke. Richards’ attack was purely malicious, as evidenced by the support on TMZ.com from unashamed racists as well as Richards’ very hasty public apology.
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I interpret the word “nigger” to be a slur- a racist personification of a dark skinned person of African heritage as an inferior, lazy, stupid person who behaves/looks like a simian and has criminal tendencies.
I find it extremely offensive and think should not be tolerated in any conversation.
As in the case of Mel Gibson’s situation with the Jewish community, Michael Richards will have a very hard time regaining respect from most people – particularly those of African descent.