Here Now the News

Focusing on the Issues that Matter Can Be Tough

The past month has been baffling when it comes to what passes as news nowadays. The public has been besieged with sound bites and celebrity meltdowns over the past few weeks. These incidents have been presented to us as not only the news of the day but as barometers of race relations! Have I missed something here?

Former Seinfeld star Michael Richards seemingly lost his mind on stage at the Laugh Factory a few nights ago, at a couple of hecklers who happened to be African American. The term he decided to use in his tirade was nigger. After several un-inspired apologies so called Black activists have taken it upon themselves to call for a ban on the use of the word. Jesse Jackson had Richards on his radio show to apologize. The most baffling part of this entire incident are the questions "what made him do this", and "how could this happen?" Here's an idea...his own racism made him do it. That's how it happened. We don't need an investigation or forensic experts to explain this. I didn't need Richards (or Mel Gibson for that matter)to commit career suicide to tell me racism still exists in America, and to have so called Black leaders hit the streets to create a boycott of this word is just plain silly. In the first place the word has become more popular than ever in urban African American settings thanks to gangsta rap. You are more likely to hear this word tumble out of the mouth of someone Black (or Latino for that matter) than someone white. Add to this the fact that the inner city Black community has a multitude of issues that register higher than the use of this epithet and the call for a ban just seems like a misguided use of time. Richards is a racist and he sabotoged his own career. That's it and that's all. The fact that this was breaking news seems to say a lot about our society and our priorities than about race relations in America.