Oh - look! Another non-racist acting like a racist!
In a video of the incident Richards purportedly screamed, "Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f---ing fork up your a--." On the videotape, some audience members are gasping in disbelief. Directing his anger at one of the men, Richards said, "Throw his a-- out," and said, "He's a n-----!" five times.
OK, you know what? I'm sorry, but IMO this is unacceptable. He has since apologized, and I have no doubt he is sincere, I don't think he is a bad man. However, these words came too easily to him, they flowed too freely and instinctively. The whole "fork thing" is not a common comment - I had never heard it and frankly, don't really know if I understand it!
Once again, this is one of the many reasons I think using racial/ethnic epithets "as a joke" or making racial/ethnic jokes is so dangerous. The words become familiar to you, they come easily and then all of a sudden you say them when you aren't supposed to.
I saw Richards' appearance on Letterman and to his credit he did say that the outrage this has caused is correct, that we should be outraged when something like this happens. I hope he can come to terms with what happened, face whatever demons made him behave like this, and that he can make amends to those who deserve his apology.
posted by Hilda @ 11:14 AM
1 Comments:
Things like this disappoint me so much. You would think our society would have moved on past incidents like this happening but sadly it keeps happening.
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