RICK’S BLOG: MICHAEL RICHARDS COMMITS CAREER SUICIDE–DEEPER IMPLICATIONS LOOM

BY RICK GRANT November 22, 2006 rickgrant01@comcast.net

When Michael Richards unleashed his vile racist tirade at the Laugh Factory in L.A., he effectively committed career suicide. He crossed a dark line, so far, there is no return. Richards will never come back from this cutting display of blatant bigotry. It’s just so ugly, it exposes him as a closet racist. His deeply harbored racism came out like vomit. Reverend Al Sharpton said that if he didn’t have that poison inside him, it would not have come out.

At the time, Richards didn’t think it was that serious. He even came back the second night. Ah, but he didn’t know that someone had video recorded the ugly rant on a cell phone. Like the cops who beat the bejesus out of Rodney King, if someone had not video taped the incident, the cops would not have been exposed as using excessive force. In the end, they were acquitted, and Los Angeles exploded into riots so bad, it was like a citywide civil war. That video tape told the story.

In Richards’ case, the next day the shocking video appeared on TMZ.com blowing up in Richards’ face. Soon it was all over the media. CNN ran it numerous times as did every other 24-hour news network. Richards is finished, unless he can pull off a miracle of forgiveness. It doesn’t matter what he says or does, his apologies and begging for mercy will seem empty and insincere. Even his appearance on David Letterman seemed cold and distant, like he was only doing it to save his own ass.

All comedians have to deal with hecklers from time to time. And, they all hate them. But they have ways of dealing with them that defuses their play for attention. Richards’ lost his temper and got into a verbal sparring match with two African American hecklers. This only fueled the fire. Suddenly, out of Richards’ mouth came the demons of hardcore racism, the likes of which haven’t been heard since the early 1960s, when the Clan murdered three Civil Rights Workers in Mississippi. The two guys who took the brunt of Richards’ wrath hired Gloria Allred (high profile discrimination attorney) for a possible Civil Rights lawsuit.

More significantly, Richards’ nasty rant is a sign that racism is deeply imbedded in our culture–in all races. It’s like a computer virus, lurking in our mind ready to strike if one loses it. This does not excuse Richards. However, his tirade uncovered a bigger problem. These subliminal messages of hate are much more pervasive than we imagined.

Indeed, we have come a long way toward a color blind society. There are many indications that Martin Luther King’s dream has finally come to fruition. Nonetheless, we must convene racially mixed focus groups and have serious discussions on how to get to the bottom of these mind viruses that threaten to undo years of progress. We must stop kidding ourselves that we have crossed the racial divide into the light of tolerance. Richards’ despicable vitriol is out there in many people, just suppressed, waiting, like gasoline fumes, for a spark to ignite it’s fury.