Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Words words words
Words words words. First Borat, where Sasha Baron Cohen says anything he wants in the guise of a crude Kazakh, never mind what people from that very real nation think. Then the surprise cancellation of O.J. Simpson's scarily titled book & TV show, "If I Did It." (Why not "had I done it," or just steal Red Skelton's phrase, come right out & admit, "I dood it."). The U.S.D.A. redefined "hungry" as "very low food security" (V.L.F.S.?). Then Michael Richards' onstage "nigger" meltdown in which he sounds like an enraged Tourette's sufferer, it's a bizarre rant, & his uncomfortable, disjointed appearance on Letterman via satellite with Jerry Seinfeld trying to moderate the proceedings, all three wondering if they'd compounded the problem.
I hear the word "nigger" every day; hundreds of times if two or three young black guys happen to be loudly conversing on the street corner beneath my window, I hear it along with a lot of other nasty language. The main rationale for casual use of the word is that it is then defused. Perhaps in that context, which is doubtful, but certainly not for use in business or church, or by whites even as "humor." I know "Afro-Americans" (Richards' term last night) who I don't believe appreciate being called "nigger" by anyone under any circumstances. It's both an awful word & a lazy word. It rarely fails to bring to my mind terrible images. Everyone in my family used it; only in the house, of course - we were raised to have good manners even toward "negroes." It's a word I quietly retired from my active spoken vocabulary in high school, which I recall as one of the first times I consciously reasoned with myself about language. I could avoid the word & still be racist, but could never use the word & not be a racist.
Fear charges prejudice, so I wonder what an experienced comic like Michael Richards feared when a couple of hecklers interrupted his act. He's an edgy, improvisational comedian, but after so many years in show business, you'd think he'd have a stock of responses ranging from bemused to aggressive but funny putdowns. What made that ugly brew bubble up & then boil over?
I hear the word "nigger" every day; hundreds of times if two or three young black guys happen to be loudly conversing on the street corner beneath my window, I hear it along with a lot of other nasty language. The main rationale for casual use of the word is that it is then defused. Perhaps in that context, which is doubtful, but certainly not for use in business or church, or by whites even as "humor." I know "Afro-Americans" (Richards' term last night) who I don't believe appreciate being called "nigger" by anyone under any circumstances. It's both an awful word & a lazy word. It rarely fails to bring to my mind terrible images. Everyone in my family used it; only in the house, of course - we were raised to have good manners even toward "negroes." It's a word I quietly retired from my active spoken vocabulary in high school, which I recall as one of the first times I consciously reasoned with myself about language. I could avoid the word & still be racist, but could never use the word & not be a racist.
Fear charges prejudice, so I wonder what an experienced comic like Michael Richards feared when a couple of hecklers interrupted his act. He's an edgy, improvisational comedian, but after so many years in show business, you'd think he'd have a stock of responses ranging from bemused to aggressive but funny putdowns. What made that ugly brew bubble up & then boil over?
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
He's an edgy, improvisional comedian, but after so many years in show business, you'd think he'd have a stock of responses ranging from bemused to aggressive but funny putdowns. What made that ugly brew bubble up & then boil over?
My question, as well. Guys like that are supposed to be professionals, used to the deranged heckler without resorting to becoming deranged themsleves.
Some suggested drugs, but I don't know. My generation, if you ain't hooked on heroin, you're probably just a pot smoker, so I doubt it's drug related.
Will we ever know the real story?
My question, as well. Guys like that are supposed to be professionals, used to the deranged heckler without resorting to becoming deranged themsleves.
Some suggested drugs, but I don't know. My generation, if you ain't hooked on heroin, you're probably just a pot smoker, so I doubt it's drug related.
Will we ever know the real story?
Watching the video, I'm inclined to think now it was a Lenny Bruce moment gone terribly wrong. At the outset Richards tried to get into a character to channel & contextualize his anger, failed, & went tumbling out of control down the slope until he had no choice but to just get up & walk off. Lenny stirred an honest self-hatred into some of his most controversial riffs; "This is deep in me, & I know it's ugly, but it's also human." Whatever Richards exposed about his own soul, he also demonstrated the limits of his art, especially that he lost his power of empathy at the very moment he needed to draw upon it.
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