Anti-Defamation League responds to Kramer outburst

[hsher]

Time for me to come out of the closet here. I have ties to the ADL, and as someone both black AND Jewish, I want my fellow DU-ers to know there HAS BEEN a Jewish response to Michael Richards' racist outburst. Whatever his motivation and mindstate at the time, what he did was insensitive and wrong, and as Jews, we are making it clear that disparaging African-Americans is not at all something the Jewish community will accept, or condone.

The link to the ADL's official press statement is here:

http://www.adl.org/PresRele/DiRaB_41/4930_31.htm


So for those who naturally wondered whether an African-American comic could make the same type of outburst using Anti-Semitic comments and get away with it, the answer is no. Nor will the Jewish community condone bigoted statements made about African-Americans. Shalom y'all :)

Edited to add the word "could"

[MADem]

1. Some context (I wasn't sure what you were talking about, so I did some hunting about)

This was some incredibly rough language. There's no wiggle room at all. A real "Mel Gibson" moment it would seem:

Michael Richards, aka Kramer, spews racial slurs during stand-up

...The 57-year-old actor-comedian, best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld's eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit TV show "Seinfeld," was performing at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood Friday night when he went into the verbal rampage


A video posted on TMZ.com shows that the tirade apparently began after two black audience members started shouting at him that he wasn't funny.


Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f------ fork up your a--."


He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs..."You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother------. Throw his a-- out. He's a n-----!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.


While there is some chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping "Oh my God" ... Eventually someone says: "It's not funny. That's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. `Seinfeld,' that's it." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/11/20/entertainment/e103819S31.DTL

Video of the thing here: http://www.tmz.com/2006/11/20/kramers-racist-tirade-caught-on-tape/

He's outta control. He never took Heckler 101, apparently.

[hsher]

2. Yeah, that was a real ketchup explosion

Have you seen the tape? He's pacing like a panther, in actual rage. Seething, really. It's surreal to watch; like a train wreck in slow motion. That woman's stunned "Oh, my G-d", just says it all.

WOW.

[MADem]

3. Yep, I put the link up (it's on the TMZ site). He's just not in possession of his faculties

Rabid, like a caged beast.

Funny how in a few feet of video, the real reason why the guy never got any work after Seinfeld was in fact revealed.

Maybe Gary Coleman can get him a job at his old gig working security...then again, given those epithets, Gary might not be too inclined to give him a favorable reference.

I'm thinking he'll have a hard time having lunch in THAT town again... unless he's putting it in a to-go bag at the local McDonald's.

[Forrest Greene]

4. How's The Career,

...Mike?

[NorthernSpy]

5. Wait a sec! I believe that Richards is NOT Jewish...

But what if the ADL's statement (not to mention Richards' character on that one TV show) leads people to infer that he is?

Could that end up making this incident worse somehow?