[antimedia] antimedia: This is a mixed up world....

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Posted by antimedia:
This is a mixed up world....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1177781332.shtml


   ....that we live in. The other day I came across a friend at work who
   was watching a YouTube video of Paul Mooney on the Letterman show.
   Mooney was so hilarious that I had to go find the video and watch it
   myself. While searching for it, I came across the video of Michael
   Richards' racist outburst at the Laugh Factory (because Mooney and
   Richards have been friends for decades.) This was the first time I had
   seen the video.
   [EMBED]
   It's hard to tell, but it looks like Richards went off on a black
   audience member who was either heckling him or disrupting his show.
   What Richards said was disgusting and inexcusable, but I haven't heard
   one word about the response of the audience member (who was obviously
   angry at Richards' outburst, which was directed at him.)
   He said, "That was uncalled for, you fucking crackerass motherfucker!"
   Later he said, "Fucking white boy!"
   No one complained about his speech. No one protested that it was
   wrong. (Personally, I can excuse him, because he reacted in anger
   after being insulted.)
   Why do I point this out? Because life today is downright confusing.
   One person can make a racist comment and the world explodes. Another
   can make them with impunity. It makes no sense to me.
   I rode the train to the Mavericks game on Sunday night. Shortly after
   I got on, three young boys boarded. Two of them were black. One was
   hispanic. They were wearing the requisite baggy pants way down low and
   the long shirts not tucked in, the chains and the grills, like many
   kids do nowadays. (On a side note, it has always cracked me up how
   kids "rebel" against authority by wearing the same uniform as all
   their buddies.)
   The youngest boy (black), who appeared to be in his early teens (maybe
   13 or 14), sat directly in front of me. His black friend, who looked
   older, sat directly across from him. For the rest of the trip I was
   assaulted with "nigga" this and "nigga" that. He talked about how some
   "nigga" was getting up in his face and he told him, "Nigga, you'd
   better back off, nigga. Don't be gettin' in my face, nigga, or I'll
   whip yo nigga ass." He even called his friend "my nigga" repeatedly.
   An elderly black man was sitting in the next seat forward from him.
   (So the teen was between me and that gentleman.) He turned around and
   looked at the kid several times, and I could tell he was bothered by
   the boy's speech. So was I.
   At one point I was so bothered by his constant use of the word that I
   seriously considered interrupting him. I wanted to tell him that
   people from my generation died to stop the use of that word. I didn't.
   Neither did the elderly man sitting ahead of him.
   Perhaps we should have.
   When we got off at the West End Station, he spotted a girl he
   apparently knew. At the top of his lungs he shouted, "What's up nigga
   bitch?" She ran to him and they hugged affectionately.
   When did racist and sexist insults become acceptable speech among
   blacks? When did what Martin Luther King died for become no longer
   relevant? Did Medgar Evers die for nothing? Were James Chaney, Michael
   Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman killed for no reason? Did Addie Mae
   Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair die in a
   church bombing in Birmingham because they were Christians?
   I talked to a friend at work about it and told her how upset I was.
   She suggested that I had been wise not to speak up, because you never
   know how they might have reacted.
   She pointed out that Richard Pryor used the word in his act. That
   other black entertainers have done the same thing. That youngsters
   today have never experienced the overt racism that was so much a part
   of the culture of her youth. She said it upsets her too, and she and
   her husband work hard to keep their son from growing up that way and
   to teach him about the sacrifices made by those of his race who came
   before him.
   The word Michael Richards used was "nigger". Most white racists I've
   know say "nigger" not "nigga". I think the conclusion that Richards is
   a rascist (despite having longtime black friends) is inescapable, but
   I can't help but wonder if Richards' felt freer to use the word simply
   because it's thrown around with such abandon in the black culture. If
   he thought it was acceptable now because it's used so commonly. (Paul
   Mooney uses it all the time.)
   I wish everyone would stop using the word. There's way too much pain
   and suffering behind it.
   If there's a next time, I will speak up.
   Tags: [1]racism [2]politics [3]media [4]YouTube

References

   1. http://technorati.com/tag/racism
   2. http://technorati.com/tag/politics
   3. http://technorati.com/tag/media
   4. http://technorati.com/tag/YouTube