Extortion for Forgiveness

When I first heard of Michael Richards, AKA Kramer’s racial tirade I was disgusted. I thought that he must be a stone’s throw away from a straight jacket and a padded room. I also thought it likely that he got a little carried away with an 8-ball before his act began. Then I began to wonder, is he a racist?

I don’t condone what Richards said or did but I reflected on the many times that I’ve been cut off in traffic by some over-weight person and yelled out to them from behind my steering wheel, “You fat ass.” This certainly doesn’t mean I inherently hate or have a prejudice against obese individuals. I’m sure there are those that do, but it’s most likely a minuscule percentage.

I thought of other times when I’ve mumbled, “stupid bitch” to a woman who didn’t start writing a check before all of her groceries were rung up, but I’m not a misogynist. Certainly there are women-haters in the world, but again, I would wager it’s a very small percentage of the population.

Many other examples of name calling come to mind where I’ve thought or called someone a name based on a physical attribute, but I certainly don’t hate everyone who embodies that characteristic. My words are an expression of anger based on obvious visible characteristics of the person annoying me.

There is a definite distinction between name calling and sweeping, condemning generalizations about a group of people. For instance, Mel Gibson’s statement that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world is wholly different then plain old name calling. So, is Michael Richards a racist? I don’t know. Only he knows the answer to that.

I then thought of the victim’s in this case, and although I felt sorry for them and the fact that they were victims of what appears to be racism. I wondered why there was no outrage for their verbal retaliations calling Richards a “cracker-ass.” Some may argue that the words condemning white people are laughable, but the meaning of words comes from within. I get called all kinds of names and when it happens, I chalk it up to childish name calling. Whatever happened to sticks and stones? African-Americans tell me that the n-word brings up memories of a painful history, but I don’t see agony in audiences when comics and rappers repeat the slur over and over.

Nevertheless, I acknowledge the assimilation of the African-American has no doubt been difficult, so I’m more inclined to exude sympathy for an instance of name calling that is of a racist tone. My sympathy stops though as soon as the victim’s started asking for money. MSNBC reported the men don’t just want an apology, they want compensation.

Suggestions were made that Richards pay a half million dollars to charity for each instance he used the n-word, and that’s patently ridiculous. It’s extortion for forgiveness which even if the money is paid, wouldn’t be granted.

Michael Richards has undoubtedly injured his career, embarrassed himself, apologized profusely, offered little excuses, and solicited the help of black leaders to make amends to the people he offended. In the end, the damage is done, and money won’t relieve the victim’s trauma nor will it repair Richard’s reputation. For me, the lesson is simple: Sometimes in life people can be mean and things aren’t always fair. We don’t live in Utopia, racism does exist, and we aren’t all going to always get along, but we take the good and the bad and we do what we’re supposed to: move on.