Saw his apology today, seemed kind of lame to me. LOL, he said "Afro Americans." Afro.. LOL stick a fork in him, cause he's done.
I see a few posts saying why is it that people are typing "the N-word" rather than outright saying "■■■■■■" and why black people can say the word, but it's taboo if a white person says it.
First off, you have to have lived in America for a long time to understand. Like any situation, only those in it can experience it fully and get a mostly accurate understanding of it.
And the fact is, black people used to be slaves to white people here in America a long time ago, and called many degrading names, ■■■■■■ is only one of them, but seems to be the most popular one. And even though today there is no more slavery, prejudice and racism does still exist, and so for anyone who is white to use the N-word is highly offensive to anyone who is black. It makes sense because blacks were slaves to whites. Now I don't understand, never have, why black people began using the N-word in their own language as some sort of "homey" thing. I figure they were maybe trying to take that word and change it into something not so bad, and not so much of a reminder of hate in humans. Not sure if that worked or not, but no doubt because of this, white people I think decided it was OK to start using the N-word again, thinking that black people were using it so much in a friendly manner it was OK. But it isn't, because he's white, and it again goes back to the slavery days.
And "Kramer" as you saw didn't just use a word that was offensive, he actually brought up slavery when he talked about how this one guy (a black man I'm presuming) would be hung with a fork up his a$$ for having the gall to heckle or interrupt "the man" i.e. a white man. Again, there are a lot of people out there with ancestors who were slaves, and hung!
So I'm not surprised at the reaction Michael Richards got. He's lucky he wasn't at a comedy place in Washington, D.C., he may have been shot. I mean, sheesh it's common knowledge to not use that word.
Yes, it IS silly when anyone takes a word so offensively they get super angry and maybe act out because of it, a word. But words do affect us all in many different ways, it's the human way I reckon. [img]smile.gif[/img] It can be good or bad.
For instance, when I was growing up and a young teenager, I lived in a small town in the sticks, and if anyone were to call you a "bitch" it was a really bad thing. Really a huge offense. Fast forward years later, when I moved to the city and met my new friend Tara, who called all her favorite friends "bitch" LOL. To her it was a compliment and just a joking around endearment. I recoiled at it at first, but after a few months I was right in there with her LOL, "You bitch (Laugh)", "Oh you are SO a bigger bitch (laugh)", etc.
So I learned about words, and how they have different powers in certain situations. It's a human thing. No point in beating your head against the wall trying to figure it out. It IS what it IS.
In summary,
For crap's sake, if you are a desperate actor with no future work ahead at all and looking to make some kind of money, don't start shouting the N-word to an audience of black people, who PAID to listen to you TALK on a stage.
Blah.
[ 11-22-2006, 11:02 PM: Message edited by: ladyzekke ]