Have any of you watched "Seinfeld"?  I am sure that even if you were not a fan or regular watcher, you have at least turned on the television and found it coming at you across your TV screen, a result of too many cable channels and cross-country syndication.  Michael Richards, who played Jerry Seinfeld's crazy neighbor, "Kramer",  was on the national news today (11/20) as he went on a racial epithet-laced tirade at a comedy club in Los Angeles on last Friday.  A heckler told Mr. Richards that he wasn't funny, and Richards responded by telling the man, a Black Man, that "50 years ago, we would have  had you hanging upside down with a fork up your a--!!!"  There were some MF's in there, but that was the gist of it.  After the heckler told him that his comment was uncalled for, he replied,  "throw his a-- out of here, he's a Nigger!!!" The tirade continued, with Richards calling the man the foul name several times. He even had the audacity to say "That's what you get for interrupting the man" in response to the brothers' anger.  When they showed the public reaction to this on NY's Eyewitness News this evening, one young white male said that he felt that Richards was trying to be funny, and did not see the incident as racially charged.  This was after the owners of the comedy club denounced Richards' actions (one of the owners is a Latino comic, Paul Rodriguez) and refunded everyone's money who paid to see the show. It is also important to note that many of the patrons of the club got up and walked out during the tirade, and that most of them were white. 

My question is this: Why don't we get up and walk out when Chris Rock, Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps and the many, many comedians that we watch on "Def Comedy Jam", "Bad Boys of Comedy" and "Comic View" use the same vile and horrible word?  DOn't give me the "er" versus "a" crap, either.  Don't try to justify it by trying to get me to believe that this is a term of endearment.  Don't try to use the silly argument that "we" can use the word, while "they" can't.  The young white male who said that he didn't see much of anything wrong with what Richards did watches Def Comedy Jam and Black Comedy Shows as well. He  does not see the problem, because "if it's alright with you it's alright with me", and we have shown that it is "sho' nuff alright wit us, suh!!"

Why the double standard?  I can pretty much guarantee you that anyone who uses the above arguments to justify his or her use of the "N" word has never been called "Nigger" to their face by a state trooper on a Texas highway late in the night, while traveling with a white friend who was treated with the utmost respect by the same officers.  The  people who think that it is cute or fashionable to call one another "nigga" have never seen racist correction officers in NY state with tatoos on their arms of black babies with nooses around their necks; unable to say anything about it for fear of being beaten into submission.  Those who believe that they have redefined this abomination of a word have never smelled racism on the breath of a white woman on a flight to North Carolina, snarling because of the indignity of having to sit next to "one of them".

All Richards was doing was acting on what we have, by default, told everyone that it is alright to do.  Degrade us, we are nothing but minstrels, call us out of our name, we find it funny!!!  We have, by our own actions, inactivity and passive assent, created what happened at that comedy club.  You would have never heard that from any white comic anywhere 15 years ago, unless he was performing at a KKK convention, and they probably had better thngs to do. So the question is this:  How long will we allow this to go on?  How long will we stifle ourselves and embarrass ourselves on a national scale with some of the drivel that we are assaulted with by comedians, rappers, and knuckleheads standing on streetcorners, sitting in nail salons and barbershops across the country?

My other question is what is going to happen to Michael Richards?  Will he face the same scorn and revulsion from the entertainment community that was leveled against Mel Gibson after his drunken anti-semitic tirade a few months back?  Will he be out of work (he probably already was out of work - he hasn't had a hit show or movie since "Seinfeld")?  He should be vilified the same way that Gibson was, but  I don't think he will be showing up at a rally for the NAACP, National Action Network and Urban League to apologize anytime soon. 

This is ironic, as there will be Public Service Announcements appearing in the near future from Russell Simmons and Jay-Z, denouncing anti-semitism.  What a crock!!!  How can either one of them sleep at night defending the rights of jews not to be called names while selling, promoting and performing on records that call their own people the most foul of names. 

Have we lost our minds?  Have we taken leave of our senses?  I bet this will go by in our community without so much as a whisper...

So Black Woman, Whatcha gonna do?  Black Man, are you going to stand up? Can you be woman or man enough to just admit that we need to change the way we address one another?  Can we just stand up and say that we need some attitude adjustment?  The alternative is to allow idiots like Michael Richards to call as many of us Nigger as he wants to.  Why not?  After all, that's what we call ourselves...right?