Nov 22, 2006

[Entertainment] Everyone's a Little Bit Racist?

The popular Broadway musical Avenue Q features a highly humorous song entitled Everyone's a Little Bit Racist, and this now seems be especially true for Hollywood.

As if what is now being called the Mel Gibson Moment wasn't enough to forever record celebrity racism into pop culture memory, another celebrity has gotten himself into a fine mess.

Image Source: Washington PostNow Michael Richards, better known to the world as "Kramer" from the hit comedy series Seinfeld, has triggered his own "Mel Gibson Moment"

Based on the news reports, it appears he got into a bit of an argument at a stand-up comedy performance at the Laugh Factory Comedy Club in Hollywood with an African American man who had apparently been heckling him during the show. Richards eventually lost his temper and had the man removed from the premises, but not before releasing a very harsh tirade of racist slurs an insults. A video of the performance eventually made its way to the internet, as they always seem to do these days, thus Richards felt obligated to issue a public apology on the David Letterman Show.

Based on the club's website, Richards has now been banned from the premises and will not be allowed back, at least for the immediate future.

What is it with Americans? We also recently discussed the issue of racism previously and now we're just given more and more examples of the cultural epidemic that seems evident in the "Land of the Free."

Personally, we want to understand this issue a lot more - what makes people, regardless of nationality, think that such thinking can become justified and statements against other races and ethnicities can ever be justified? How does one determine any sense of ranking or "superiority" in this world of near infinite possibilities?

What will it take to stop the hatred? How many more "Mel Gibson Moments" are out there waiting to happen? Not all of them are so publicly noticed - most happen day after day in school hallways, on busy city streets and even places of worship. What kind of a warped world is this for all these things to possibly happen?

No comments:

Post a Comment