Columnist Jamala Rogers
The uproar about Michael Richards’ racist tirade during a comedy routine in Los Angeles had stinging similarities to the police shootdown of a groom and his friends in New York. From coast to coast, incidents of racist slurs, assaults, harassment and discrimination abound.
Richards, who played Seinfeld’s sidekick Kramer, puked up a litany of racial comments when his comedy routine was heckled by two young black men. Richards maintains that he is not a racist. He told the Rev. Jesse Jackson on his “Keep Hope Alive” syndicated radio program that he had never used the “n” word before. The manner and speed in which the words came are not consistent with the delivery of a novice.
Where does a statement come from like “Fifty years ago, we’d have you upside down with a f—— fork up your a—”? When I hear statements like that, whether they are sexist, homophobic or racist, I believe that if the person had the power or opportunity they would carry it out.
Richards had a chance to stop but he kept reloading his mouth with racist, venomous words, much like the New York police did when they unleashed a barrage of bullets at Sean Bell and his two friends. A soon-to-be husband, Bell was celebrating at his bachelor party when confronted by undercover cops as the group drove away from the venue. It has since been noted that one cop shot 31 times, meaning he had to reload his weapon.
Please don’t expect me to change my views because the officers were colored. Law enforcement is a racist institution, regardless of the color of its agents.
This country goes through periods when this kind of racist behavior is socially and politically accepted by the mainstream. The tide seems to turn when the quantity of incidents are too overwhelming or brutal to excuse. Apparently, now isn’t the time.
For the last several years, numerous incidents of racial bias have been reported, although many go unreported as a fact of life in a black world.
Virtually every segment of society participates in the perpetuation of racism. It is found in housing, employment, sports, the courts, education, media, religion and so on. For police departments, it operates both internally with racist incidents involving fellow black cops as well as in our neighborhoods. Legally authorized to carry and use guns, the outcomes can only continue to be negative or deadly in the hands of those with twisted minds.
University campuses, supposedly the bastion of free thought and freer speech, are major sources of media reports on racist graffiti, racist cartoons in newspapers, animals hanging dead in dorms, etc. At the University of Virginia, the African-American dean said the rising incidents on the campus went beyond racial incidents; M. Rick Turner called it “racial terrorism.”
For those of us of African descent, our lives won’t get any better until we address the institutions that devalue our lives and our deaths.
Leo Terrell, civil rights attorney, appeared on MSNBC to talk about Richard’s remarks. He blasted black folks for not waging a continuous battle against racism and challenged them to stop reacting to specific incidents.
I tend to agree. But when somebody’s reloading on you daily, you may have to temporarily seek cover before you can plan a real offensive.