"Kramer" from Seinfeld racist remarks

What good is an apology if it's not truly sincere and only used to get ones self out of the frying pan?

Did you watch the apology? It seemed sincere. He looked like a guy that found out he has some problems that even he was unaware of. It's easy to hate someone that's made a serious mistake. And he made a huge one. It will most likely cost him his life as he knows it. Maybe he'll become a better person because of it.

Mel Gibson is still paying for the comments he made about jews and everything he works on from now on will be tainted and thats for comments that were not even half as offensive as what richards said. It's not right to African american people to hold him to any less of a standard.

The price of being a celebrity.

I'm tired of people saying it was a mistake or a slip of the tounge, if the man didn't have these feelings toward african americans, the words would never have came out.

For him being in the business so long you think he would have acted more professional.

The only way i could see this was a slip of the tongue is if he was on crack.

The man made a mistake, we all do, but this still should have not happened.

I just saw his apology on Letterman.

What I saw was genuine contrition.

What was so amusing about it was that Richards' timing is so good, that even when he was so obviously devastated and embarrassed by his remarks, the audience couldn't help but laugh, not at him, but because he's just such a funny man.

I certainly don't think his comments were any worse than Kanye West's disgraceful conduct on the whatever show that was where he left Mike Meyers holding the bag and trying to ad lib is way out of the situation.

Did West apologize? I don't recall such an event.

I don't understand why people are having a hard time understanding this situation.

Michael Richards said things that were very inappropriate to a group of people that, while heckling Richards, didn't deserve what he said. It was an outlash out of anger. He stated this and apologized.

Is there a double standard in comedy with regards to race? Of course. Does that have anything at all to do with this situation? Nope. It was an outburst out of anger and we've all done it at some point and probably harmed someone because of it.

The real devil is the media that needs to make a big deal out of it when the same sort of thing happens every day to all sorts of people in all walks of life. Note I'm not saying it excuses the behavior ... but the man sincerely apologized. Think about all the mean things you've said to another person. And don't try and say "well this is bigger because it's about race and that's a bigger issue." As others said, try telling that to the fat kid that gets made fun of or the dorky kid or latinos or canadians or whatever other group would be insulted that you claim one person's injustice is greater than their own.

EDIT: spelling

[edit on 21-11-2006 by Fiverz]

Originally posted by Fiverz
I don't understand why people are having a hard time understanding this situation.

Michael Richards said things that were very inappropriate to a group of people that, while heckling Richards, didn't deserve what he said. It was an outlash out of anger. He stated this and apologized.

Is there a double standard in comedy with regards to race? Of course. Does that have anything at all to do with this situation? Nope. It was an outburst out of anger and we've all done it at some point and probably harmed someone because of it.

The real devil is the media that needs to make a big deal out of it when the same sort of thing happens every day to all sorts of people in all walks of life. Note I'm not saying it excuses the behavior ... but the man sincerely apologized. Think about all the mean things you've said to another person. And don't try and say "well this is bigger because it's about race and that's a bigger issue." As others said, try telling that to the fat kid that gets made fun of or the dorky kid or latinos or canadians or whatever other group would be insulted that you claim one person's injustice is greater than their own.

EDIT: spelling

[edit on 21-11-2006 by Fiverz]

I guess comments like this can be made people who were not offended by the comments...because it sure does smell alot like bs to me. I am glad that I can see who the people are innanly defending the racist comments he made with lines of oh everybody gets angry..he didnt mean it... you know there is a double standard. The apology seemed insincere to me, he is an actor and it showed as how he tried to act through the apology.

I'll be real the apology was made because seinfeld is still a cash cow for the former cast of the show, and he did just to put up a fog and appease so many people who had been a fan of him throughout the decades and deeply enraged and saddend by his comments. He did not go to racial sensitivity treatment or anything such as that and your suppose to make me believe that the apology was sincere...

Why the heck is everyone complaining about this double standard BS. if there is a double standard, so what?

It doesn't make what richards said alright or ok.

Stop trying to justify hate of any kind with this double standard BS.

Remember, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

Look humble one, no one is saying that Richards did the right thing.

I'm saying he did a stupid thing, but the outrage is unnecessary, especially now that he has apologized.

For someone who calls himself humble and uses the image of Jesus in his avatar, you seem awfully vengeful.

Move on.

[edit on 2006/11/21 by GradyPhilpott]

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
Look humble one, no one is saying that Richards did the right thing.

I'm saying he did a stupid thing, but the outrage is unnecessary, especially now that he has apologized.

For someone who calls himself humble and uses the image of Jesus in his avatar, you seem awfully vengeful.

Move on.

[edit on 2006/11/21 by GradyPhilpott]

No we will not move on, these cases of racism are still happening even in the 21st century.

I don't know what you mean by "Vengeful". why do i seem vengeful, is it because i'm not afraid to condemn something as ugly as racism?

I am not vengeful, but if you must, i am righteously vengeful.

As for richards apology, it is only right that he would apologize, especially after making such appalling comments.

It's time for people like you to wake up and realize that racism still exists.

If we just sweep things like this under the rug then everyone will think that there is no cosequences for racism, if you want that to happen, be my guest.

Yes, Richards made a mistake, he is human like the rest of us. Being a celebrity, the backlash of such an incident comes with the territory.

we all are one race, the human race, and don't ever forget that.








[edit on 21-11-2006 by thehumbleone]

In the aftermath of Richard's apology, we are going to see two separate arguments.

One for forgiveness, one of vengeance. Those who forgive, are going to question why Gibson's antisemitic rant was shown with compassion and Richards is not. But I see one problem. Was Gibson's rant caught on camera and flashed around the world?

I don't think so. If there was, I failed to see it.

What we see and what we hear are two different things. If someone tells us Gibson blurted racial slurs, and then if we watch Richards talk about hanging a black man from a tree upside down with a fork in his ass, well the latter is a little tougher to forgive. Is that right? Hell no, but it's human nature.

Members who are saying well Mel did this, and Kanye did this, why this double standard? Gibson was faced with a serious backlash, Kanye faced some serious scrutiny. Preaching double standard in defense of Richards is a weak, weak argument. Saying well what he did wasn't right, but what about this, this, & this? No, this is a lone, single and separate incident. He should be held accountable for his own actions and not compared to anyone else.

What I heard in his apology was, "I'm not a racist, it.... it.... it... just.. comes out!"

Let's face it, Gibson does not like Jewish people. Richards does not like black people.

I find it tough to believe otherwise.

This is blown out way of proportion.

He could have reacted differently.
He could have punched the guy. If he did this, he would have been prosecuted with assault.
He could have insulted his race and punched the guy. If he did this, he would have been prosecuted with a hate crime.
But he did none of the above. He expressed his emotions which he felt at that particular time. Since when are we to condemn someone who expresses themselves?


For those of you who believe that it is his own fault, you need to look at yourselves. It is not his fault; It is yours. Why is it wrong for him to say what he said? Because he offended people? Well that's just too bad. That's life.

For those of you who believe that he should not have had these feelings, you are a joke. Plain and simple. People have bias toward certain things, sometimes irrationally. It is human nature to do so. You cannot silence, change or condem his feelings toward what he feels. Just as another cannot silence, change or condem your feelings that others may feel as inappropriate.

Those of you who believe he should not have expressed his feelings have no right to be posting in this thread. You are expressing your feelings against a man who expressed his.

Every single one of you is a dirty hypocrite.

Gibson blamed the world's problems on jews. Richards called a group of men names, albeit hateful ones, but names. Both managed to let their inner hatred out. The difference, and it is small but noteworthy, is that Gibson went on a tirade for no reason while Richards was ranting after being heckled by a group of men. What did they say? We don't know. For all we know, they could have been calling him whitey, honkey or whatever. Does it make Richard's tirade right? Absolutely not.


I watched him on Letterman last night and all I kept thinking was that he sure did seem to be shaken by this. Letting your inner klansman out must be somewhat life altering.

Originally posted by Crakeur
I watched him on Letterman last night and all I kept thinking was that he sure did seem to be shaken by this. Letting your inner klansman out must be somewhat life altering.

I thought the same thing. For some reason I get the feeling that Richards probably thought he was going to answer the heckling in a funny but harsh way, then he lost it, and even he was shocked by what ended up coming out.

When he furrowed his brow a couple times during the apology and mentioned having personal work to do, I got the feeling that he was stunned by what he had done and would maybe address it.

At this point, you can take him at his word, and hope this changes him for the better, or you can sit back in judgement knowing your own conscious is absolutely clear, hate his guts, and continue to scream how dispicable he is.

If you choose the latter, then I think you have to be consistent. You have seek out and condemn these types of situations whether it be Mel Gibson, Kayne West, a posse of rappers, Jimmy The Greek, Howard Cosel, or Michael Irvin.

My guess that most of the posters here spewing what amounts to hatred at Richards do not do that. They quantify by saying, "you can't compare this to that, he was much worse." I sense that some take a certain amount of joy out of a situation that brings someone famous to their knees. That doesn't hold water for me, sorry. It's hypocritical.

The last thing said to Richards before he left the stage was something to the effect of him being a nobody, if not for Seinfeld. The hecklers said he never did anything before or after and he was nothing without seinfeld. He said something about "getting him with that one" and he dropped the mike and left the stage.

Playing devil's advocate again but maybe the heckling revolved around that. Even though the seinfeld actors all made fortunes and probably don't need money, it should be pointed out that entertaining for a living satisfies two things. Money and ego. Entertainers are ego driven. How else to explain someone who wants to stand in front of an audience and put on a show (movie, tv, stage etc). I've worked with entertainers in the past. After a performance they need to go out and unwind. Let the adrenaline high wear off. Richards was probably on stage for that purpose more than the money. In the back of his mind he must know that he was never much more than a mildy recognizable comic before the sitcom made him famous. If these guys tapped that vein, it might have led to a bigger outburst than normal.

What's truly hysterical is that Jerry was on Letterman last night promoting the Season 7 dvd and he did his friend a favor and got him on the show. After that segment was over, Letterman brought up a book Jerry wrote the forward to. It's a compilation of comedian's war stories from the road. So Richards goes berserk on the eve of the season 7 dvd launch AND the launch of a book that features Seinfeld and centers on stories from the stage.

So many have fought so hard against racism, MLK was murdered over it. Was the big struggle propagated to stamp out racism or to turn it over to the opposite side? What do you think MLK would say today seeing hateful racism from all races?

IMO the only "mistake" in Richards mind was letting his true feelings show. He meant what he said and no amount of apology will fix that. Only a change of heart will fix it and I can't see that change coming in a couple of days. The sadness and disgrace he displayed during his apology were most likely caused by him knowing that it would not solve the problem of his career now being over. Realizing that the appearance on Letterman could be his last professional foray is most likely what was on his mind last night.

Michael Richards is clearly a bigot on some level as we all are. We all have a bit of prejudice in us when it comes to others being different than ourselves. The difference is, some of us choose to lash out at those that are different, still others try to bury our feelings or hold them back and then there are some that recognize their faults, face them head on and work to eliminate them.

I can honestly say that I do have a small streak of racism in me. Mine is more generalized and has little to do with race itself. It is more in how some people act and the way that I view these actions. Even though my issues are very minimal, I still recognize them and work on improving as much as possible.

If anyone says they are completely free of having at least a hint of a problem I would find that hard to believe. The good news is that we can all work to change our hearts, even Michael Richards….

As I said before, it does seem Kaufmann-esque if you ask me. Let me put my tinfoil hat on and say that it was all for publicity, and to get his name back in the papers.

One must ask, who was the initial heckler, and does he have any relationship with the Seinfeld guys.

Originally posted by Rasobasi420
As I said before, it does seem Kaufmann-esque if you ask me. Let me put my tinfoil hat on and say that it was all for publicity, and to get his name back in the papers.

One must ask, who was the initial heckler, and does he have any relationship with the Seinfeld guys.

You know, I did consider a Kaufman type scenario but I just don't see it. Andy was very calculated in how he did things. He either separated himself from the issue or chose his mark wisely. One thing he never did was apologize for his actions.

Although this seems so outrageous that you want to look for an excuse I just don't see it. His appearance on Letterman may also hearken back but again I don't see it.

If it was a stunt or some kind of experiment on society then it got me. Kaufman-like? Not even close.

Originally posted by jbondo
The sadness and disgrace he displayed during his apology were most likely caused by him knowing that it would not solve the problem of his career now being over. Realizing that the appearance on Letterman could be his last professional foray is most likely what was on his mind last night.

he will still do standup. he hasn't done much acting in his career, other than seinfeld. he's played strange dudes in some comedies prior to seinfeld, he did a couple of movies during seinfeld and he has had a failed sitcom or two since seinfeld ended.

I saw him once years ago, doing a routine where he walked onto the stage with one of those chest full of army men things you see in the back of comic books. he proceeded to lie on the floor and play out a full scale war. it was hysterical and strange. he's a strange man for sure.